IOC Vice President Thomas Bach was asked by Europe’s biggest newspaper, Bild to rank the biggest sport heroes of all times. The criteria to be used were the length of the athlete’s success and their total life achievement. The request from Bild came following Lance Armstrong’s sixth win in Tour de France. Bjorn Daehlie (37) was the only winter sport athlete that made the top-ten list.
Carl Lewis tops Bach’s list while racecar driver Michael Schumacher surprisingly made seventh place. Missing from the top ten list are big names like Micheal Jordan, Tiger Woods, Mark Spitz, Wayne Gretzky, Bjorn Borg and Eddy Merckx. Half of the athletes are from Track and Field.
The list:
Carl Lewis, USA
Pele, Brazil
Lance Armstrong, USA
Jesse Owens, USA,
Muhammad Ali, USA
Emil Zatopek, Tsjekkoslovakia
Kipchoge Keino, Kenya
Michael Schumacher, Germany
Paulo Nurmi, Finland
Bjorn Daehli, Norway
