Is Kelly Slater the Greatest Athlete Ever?
I am asking you this question, seriously. So feel free to leave your answer in the comments. I’m convinced after dominating the ASP World Tour this year that Kelly Slater is the greatest athlete ever. He won a record breaking 9th World Title this year and just finished winning a record breaking 6th Pipeline Masters. I’m pretty sure he already held the record in both of those as well.
Is he a greater athlete than Tiger Woods? Michael Jordan? Lance Armstrong? I think so. There is no other athlete that has dominated his respective sport the way Kelly has.
Cameron Olthuis is the Founder of
Tiger woods all the way- he has won more than 9 majors and he still has a long long way to go
My vote goes to MJ. Surfing just doesn’t seem like a legitimate enough sport to produce a world class athlete.
@Tom, ignorance is bliss
Unfortunately competitive surfing isn’t popular enough for him to ever be recognized as the greatest athlete ever.
Popularity and recognition aren’t necessarily qualifications for being considered the ‘greatest athlete ever’. When ESPN named Michael Jordan as the ‘greatest athlete ever’, I saw that as a popularity contest more than anything else. While he is the greatest basketball player ever, that doesn’t man he is the greatest athlete.
With that being said, and even with me being an absolutely mental fan of Kelly Slater and what he does in the water, I wouldn’t go as far as calling him the greatest athlete ever. My vote would be for the late Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was a beast of an athlete and excelled in many sports. He won Olympic gold medals as well as dominated in football, basketball, and baseball.
As far as dominating one sport in particular, no one, not even Mr. Jordan, has dominated and re-invented a sport the way that Kelly Slater has and still does to this day…regardless of how popular surfing is to the masses. There will truly never be another Kelly Sl9r…and he may very well be on his way to Sl10r.
Haile Gebrselassie - He receives so little recognition but look him up - 26 world records in multiple events!
kelly has won 9 world titles. Hes the youngest and oldest world champ in surfing history. He has won 42 WCT events which would be the same as a major in tennis. The difference is there are 10 WCT events in a year as opposed to 4 slams a year so u would have to adjust the numbers. Surfing is very different from other sports because your dealing with the ocean, an unpredictable force of nature. Your not even going to for sure catch a wave. You don’t see the tennis court changing in front of your eyes at Arthur Ashe. Although, one thing that makes it similar is how they play on different surfaces(clay,hard,grass). Bottom line surfing isn’t popular enough. If you’ve never done it, its hard to relate and completely appreciate it.
I would be willing to bet Kelly could ride up the Pyrenees on a bike. He also is a very good golfer. Can Lance surf second reef Pipeline or Teahupoo, no way. Neither can Tiger. Also people don’t understand competitive surfing and how difficult it really is. I do give Lance allot of credit though coming back from canser and doing what he did was no small task. Surfing will never be considered a mainstream sport.
Thank you.