GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- Let us agree that there are a number of great athletes who could easily have been chosen as the "Greatest Athlete of the Century." ESPN picked Michael Jordan,USA Todaypicked Muhammad Ali, and the case could easily be made for Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe, Carl Lewis or half a dozen others.
While there is plenty of room for disagreement among sports fans on this question, one name emerges as the clear favorite among Americans: Michael Jordan. He dominated the game of basketball as few others have, has enough championship rings for one hand (with one left over for the other), and had he been able to hit a curve ball, might well have competed at the major-league level in two sports.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted December 20-21, 1999 gives Jordan the nod as the Athlete of the Century. Nearly one in four Americans, 23%, named Jordan when asked "What man or woman living anytime this century do you think was the greatest athlete of the century, in terms of their athletic performance." Muhammad Ali rated a distant second, mentioned by 9%, followed by Babe Ruth and Jim Thorpe with 4% each, and Jesse Owens, with 3%. A number of athletes also received mentions from at least 1% of those polled, including Wayne Gretzky, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Joe Montana, Carl Lewis, Joe Louis and Joe DiMaggio.
Few Differences by Age, Some by Race
One might expect that Jordan's accomplishments, which came in the
late 1980s and through most of the '90s, would make him
particularly prominent in the minds of young Americans. However,
Americans of all ages ranked Jordan tops when questioned by Gallup
interviewers. As would be expected, 34% of those aged 18-29 gave
the edge to Jordan. However, while his popularity was slightly
lower among older Americans, he still received top honors from
Americans over 50.
It should be noted that athletes of earlier generations did do slightly better among older Americans. For example, while Jim Thorpe received a scant 1% of support from Americans between the ages of 18-29, 6% of those over 50 ranked his performances in the 1912 Olympics and as a professional athlete high enough to deserve the title of Athlete of the Century.
Nine percent of whites polled ranked Muhammad Ali number one, while 16% of blacks considered him the best athlete in this century. One might expect that his controversial refusal to serve in Vietnam in the 1960s might have influenced Americans' likelihood of choosing him as best athlete, but when the results are broken out by political ideology, there is little difference between conservatives and liberals in their support for Ali.
Survey Methods
The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly
selected national sample of 1,031 adults, 18 years and older,
conducted December 20-21, 1999. For results based on this sample,
one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error
attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus
3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question
wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can
introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion
polls.
What man or woman living anytime this century do you think was the greatest athlete of the century, in terms of their athletic performance? (Open-ended)
RESULTS BASED ON FIRST MENTION
| Michael Jordan | 23% |
| Muhammad Ali | 9 |
| Babe Ruth | 4 |
| Jim Thorpe | 4 |
| Jesse Owens | 3 |
| Walter Payton | 2 |
| Jackie Joyner-Kersee | 2 |
| Wayne Gretzky | 1 |
| Babe Didrikson Zaharias | 1 |
| Florence Griffith Joyner | 1 |
| Mark McGwire | 1 |
| Joe Montana | 1 |
| Carl Lewis | 1 |
| Pete Rose | 1 |
| Joe DiMaggio | 1 |
| Hank Aaron | 1 |
| Joe Louis | 1 |
| Bruce Jenner | 1 |
| Other | 16 |
| No opinion | 26 |
