Is Kelly Slater the Greatest athlete of all time?

Sport101

Is Kelly Slater the greatest athlete of all time?

http://espn.go.com/action/surfing/story/_/id/7184053/after-11-asp-world-titles-kelly-slater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0QlHZ_tfOw

promethius

My opinion is that he is by a country mile and more the best surfer ever. His flow and style is just something else, he makes the impossible seem easy, relaxed in monstrous tubes and landing airs that most people couldn't do on a computer. Undisputed king of surfing that may never be surpassed.

Best athlete of all time? Come on. That's just hype by the media/sponsors.
I voted no.

Better than Pele, Messi, Best, Gebrselassie, Ali, Bolt?
He's proved to be the best of what's a minority sport worldwide whereas the others have at their own time topped sports of the masses.

Fracture

promethius wrote: »

My opinion is that he is by a country mile and more the best surfer ever. His flow and style is just something else, he makes the impossible seem easy, relaxed in monstrous tubes and landing airs that most people couldn't do on a computer. Undisputed king of surfing that may never be surpassed.

Best athlete of all time? Come on. That's just hype by the media/sponsors.
I voted no.

Better than Pele, Messi, Best, Gebrselassie, Ali, Bolt?
He's proved to be the best of what's a minority sport worldwide whereas the others have at their own time topped sports of the masses.

He definately the best surfer of all time, and in my opinion one of the best athletes of all time. Kelly is still winning world titles, and at his age thats amazing, he's stilll got many years ahead of him and i would imagine a few more titles to add to the list and in that regard he will have more titles to his name than any other athlete i can think of.

Sport101

I certainly think he ranks right up there. The longevity of his reign is incredible. He won his first world title in 1992 (at 20 years of age) and won his 11th world title in 2011(at 39), and its not like surfing isn't a physically demanding sport. He has shown a remarkable ability to change his surfing and adapt to the new challenges thrown at him, resulting in him being as dominant as he's ever been in his career right now. He was the youngest world title holder in his sport, and now he's the oldest. He also plays off 3 in golf which is impressive.

I certainly wouldn't rank Messi or George Best anywhere near him. If Messi plays at the top of the game for another 5-10 years then maybe he should be considered, he's certainly an awesome talent, whereas George Best may have been a great footballer, but an athlete he was not. I really think you need to be ultra dominant at the top of your sport for a significant period of time to be ranked as one of the greatest athletes of all time. Guys like Federer rank up there for me, maybe Phelps, Armstrong, Ali etc. Bolt is probably the most impressive athlete I've ever seen and it will be interesting to see if he dominates for the next few years, or changes distances or sports.

promethius

i personally wouldn't use longevity as the principle measure of greatness for the best athlete of all time.

He's a legend within the sport and also outside the sport in the general realm there's no doubt about that.

Don't get me wrong i love kelly and have loads of dvds of him that are just incredible (check out "in black and white") from back in early 90s where you can see he will be one of the greats. I'm just trying to look at it with my surfing hat off :-)

Sport101

promethius wrote: »

i personally wouldn't use longevity as the principle measure of greatness for the best athlete of all time.

Its the longevity of his dominance that's really impressive, not his career, in fact he's got even more dominant as he's got older. To put it in perspective, Gabriel Medina wasn't even born when Kelly won his first world title in 1992, Nick Faldo was the world No.1 in Golf, Stefan Edberg was the world no. 1 in tennis, Linford Christie was the Olympic 100 metres champion and Nigel Mansell had just taken Aytron Senna's crown in the world driver's championship!

Mickeroo

He's definitley the best competitive surfer imo. It's hard to say he's the best overall athlete ever though. it's impossible to call as each sport requires different things and has different effects on the body. Comparing footballers and the like to Slater is unfair too as that sport takes a much bigger toll on the body overtime than surfing does so it's practically impossible to stay at the top level as long as Slater has in surfing.

Would be nice to see him win another when he turns 40 next year!

promethius

turns out somewhat unbelievably that he hasn't actually won an 11th title :eek:
it will be a formality in all likelihood barring injury


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2011/11/kelly-slater-asp-surfing.html

Mickeroo

promethius wrote: »

turns out somewhat unbelievably that he hasn't actually won an 11th title :eek:
it will be a formality in all likelihood barring injury


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2011/11/kelly-slater-asp-surfing.html

:eek: this could be interesting!

I'm sure he'll end up being announced as winner anyway.

FlashD

Kelly is the best at what he does...

The greatest athlete..NEVER!

Apart from one or two I don't really rate the competition (pro surfers) all that highly.... few of them come across as right dunces.

roberb

For someone to dominate as much as he has is incredible. A total of 20 years in a sport that is extremelly physically demanding.

Hard to know if he is the greatest athlete realistically as it is a minority sport. Consider how many people play soccer and tennis - to be number one in those sports is arguably harder.

Motor racing is similar - Could you say that Schumacher is one of the greates. No because participation in the sport is extremelly small.

Its more his longevity that is phenomenal. He has domianted every year of his 20 years (aside from his 2 years off) I would say he must be in the top 20 of all time though.
Also incredible is the fact that surfing has become very popular and the new breed of surfers can still not beat him.

Dohnny Jepp

I think wayne gretzky, michael jordan, lance armstrong would all be better athletes.

Who has the most olympic gold medals? Because some of those track and field and other olympic games peeps are freakishly good.

Mickeroo

Dohnny Jepp wrote: »

I think wayne gretzky, michael jordan, lance armstrong would all be better athletes.

Who has the most olympic gold medals? Because some of those track and field and other olympic games peeps are freakishly good.

Thats not really a good way to measure an athlete's ability if they don't compete in an olympic sport.

Dohnny Jepp

No measurement will ever be good enough, because no one measurement will be relavant to all athletes. I asked about gold medals because it would show which olympic athletes dominated their field. Turns out most gold medals is by a swimmer I think.

Sport101

In terms of Olympic Gold Medals Steve Redgrave would surely be considered the most dominant with 5 Olympic Golds in consecutive games, which is an incredible feat, an incredible Olympic athlete.

promethius

surfing in the olympics would be so cool!

could picture taj, kelly etc rocking up ready for their hardware, then these group of 3 chinese lads never seen before arrive, pull off moves never even dreamed of, fill the podium never to be seen again

Mickeroo

We should start the campaign right here. Sure if BMX is an olympic sport why not surfing? :P

Maybe they could get a wave garden installed in London for 2012

Low Pockets

I don't think you can compare slated to Olympic athletes.
They train at one discipline and strive to become the best. A standard track and standardised equipment.

Over the course of the 20 years surfing has eveloved, more the once, every five years or so there's the new school doing what ever it is they do. The juding has had to change with it. (from style to power to airs to a combination of it all) As has the competion field. When contest were being held in slop, he won, perfect heaving pipe, he won, monstrous Tahiti, he won. The man has even won the eddie!

He's also taken a interest in refining his equipment and created boards that probably wouldn't work for anyone else, but they work for him.

Not to take from what any other athletes have achieved because to become the best at any sport takes huge drive and determination it to do it in something like surfing, when there are so many variables. It just really blows me away.

FlashD

promethius wrote: »

could picture taj,

Taj ....Who?

No disrespect to Kelly, but if a guy of 40 is still winning the pro tour...well what does that say about the rest of the field?

I mean c'mon, the majority of athletes are at their prime in their 20's so what are all these pro surfers at? A guy in his 40's shouldn't be kicking their asses.

Pro tour is a joke in contrast to other sports.

aongo

niche or not, I think Kelly is a definite contender for best athlete of all time... it's not just due to his freakish talent, but his disciplined and professional approach to competition... which a lot of younger surfer's lack, maybe that's another reason boys in their 20s no match for a man approaching 40.

Best way I've ever saw it put was by a journalist in KS's biography a few years ago - "Many surfers grew up as kids wanting to be Kelly Slater... entered events to try rival Kelly Slater... and got retired from competition by Kelly Slater"... kind of says it all really... the man is a phenonemon with a capital F...

keryl

A serious athlete, no question. I think his ability to win so young and so old in sports terms is some achievement and is what people will look back on. I think the greatest athletes are those that can compete in multi sports that we see in the Olympics.

PeakOutput

imho he is definitely the best competitive surfer that has ever lived but I dont think he is anywhere near the greatest athlete of all time.

I think being an 'athlete' implies something more then just specialising in one sport. I think it implies being more of an all rounder or at least having the potential to be an all rounder. I think a top decathlete or triathlete might be a better athlete then kelly slater

greatest sports person of all time might be more appropriate but even with that I wouldnt say he is anywhere near the top of the list.....possibly top 20 certainly top 50. sports person would take into account influence on a sport or culture or the world in general rather then just pure athletic prowess.

there are numerous factors that would need to be considered but the one that springs to mind immediately is how many people actually surf compared to other more mainstream sports. is it easier to be the best surfer in the world compared to say the best soccer player in the world simply because you are up against a lot fewer people?

If every other athlete on the planet decided to surf when they were kids instead of pursue the sport of their choice would kelly slater still be the best ever or might there be someone who has all the attributes he has but chose to be a soccer player for example?

hidinginthebush

promethius wrote: »

surfing in the olympics would be so cool!

could picture taj, kelly etc rocking up ready for their hardware, then these group of 3 chinese lads never seen before arrive, pull off moves never even dreamed of, fill the podium never to be seen again

Charlie don't surf!

enricoh

a mate of mine stumbled upon a surfing comp in oz a few years back that kelly slater was competing in.
mate gets interviewed live of oz tv, yer one asks - how stoked are u that kellys here? my mate responds - yeh, where is she, everyones talking about her! cut!!