Who Is the Greatest Athlete of All Time?
All 32 athletes here, ranked by 115 players. Lionel Messi leads: it wins 74.4% of its matchups (n = 316) and was champion in 21 of 115 brackets. Disagree? Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Nadia ComaneciGymnastics
Tom BradyFootball
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Greatest Athletes of All Time: the community’s best
Win rate across 3,093 head-to-head picks from 115 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Athlete | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel MessiSoccer | 235–81 | 74.4% | 21 | 316 | |
| 2 | Michael JordanBasketball | 203–90 | 69.3% | 6 | 293 | |
| 3 | Cristiano RonaldoSoccer | 183–95 | 65.8% | 14 | 278 | |
| 4 | Michael PhelpsSwimming | 169–88 | 65.8% | 12 | 257 | |
| 5 | LeBron JamesBasketball | 167–91 | 64.7% | 4 | 258 | |
| 6 | Usain BoltTrack & Field | 171–96 | 64% | 8 | 267 | |
| 7 | Muhammad AliBoxing | 148–101 | 59.4% | 4 | 249 | |
| 8 | Mike TysonBoxing | 128–97 | 56.9% | 3 | 225 |
Greatest Athletes of All Time: the community tier list
From 3,093 head-to-head picks in 115 finished brackets. Placed by win rate, steadied toward 50% for entrants with few matchups: S is 75% or more, A 60%, B 50%, C 40%, D 25%.
Stier, win rate 75% or more
- Nobody yet
Atier, win rate 60% or more
- Lionel Messi
- Michael Jordan
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Michael Phelps
- LeBron James
- Usain Bolt
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- Muhammad Ali
- Mike Tyson
- Pele
- Tom Brady
- Diego Maradona
- Kobe Bryant
- Tiger Woods
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- Wayne Gretzky
- Stephen Curry
- Roger Federer
- Lewis Hamilton
- Shaquille O'Neal
- Novak Djokovic
- Babe Ruth
- Bo Jackson
- + 1 more
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- Serena Williams
- Jackie Robinson
- Jim Brown
- Rafael Nadal
- Jesse Owens
- Connor McDavid
- Barry Bonds
- Carl Lewis
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Nadia Comaneci
- Jack Nicklaus
How the Greatest Athletes of All Time bracket works
This athlete bracket is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Michael Jordan or Serena Williams? Muhammad Ali or Lionel Messi? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. The awkward pairings are the point: they are the calls a drag-and-drop tier list quietly lets you avoid.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), drawn from a pool of 32 contenders. Everyone gets the same draw on a given day, so you can compare runs with friends; New draw gives you a genuinely different bracket rather than the same path twice. You can also play it at 8 or 32 slots for a shorter or longer run.
15 picks, 4 rounds
- Round of 168 matchups
- Quarterfinals4 matchups
- Semifinals2 matchups
- Final1 matchup
Roughly 1-2 minutes start to finish at the default size.
All 32 entrants
All 32 entrants are listed below, including Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Muhammad Ali and Lionel Messi. Updated
- Michael JordanBasketball
- Serena WilliamsTennisPhoto: Vbrunophotog / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Muhammad AliBoxing
- Lionel MessiSoccerPhoto: Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Tom BradyFootballPhoto: Barcex / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Usain BoltTrack & FieldPhoto: Barcex / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Michael PhelpsSwimmingPhoto: Agência Brasil Fotografias / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Wayne GretzkyHockeyPhoto: Andre Forget - Andrew Scheer / Wikimedia Commons · CC0
- LeBron JamesBasketballPhoto: Erik Drost / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Tiger WoodsGolf
- Babe RuthBaseball
- PeleSoccer
- Simone BilesGymnasticsPhoto: Ocoudis / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Roger FedererTennisPhoto: Tatiana / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Rafael NadalTennisPhoto: Barcex / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Novak DjokovicTennisPhoto: Andymiah / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Cristiano RonaldoSoccerPhoto: YantsImages / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Mike TysonBoxingPhoto: Super Festivals / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Bo JacksonFootball / BaseballPhoto: U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC Photo by Chris Putman) / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Jackie RobinsonBaseballPhoto: Harry Warnecke / Wikimedia Commons · CC0
- Shaquille O'NealBasketballPhoto: TechCrunch / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Jesse OwensTrack & Field
- Jim BrownFootball
- Barry BondsBaseballPhoto: Jim Accordino / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Nadia ComaneciGymnasticsPhoto: Barcex / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Diego MaradonaSoccer
- Kobe BryantBasketballPhoto: Keith Allison / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Lewis HamiltonFormula 1
- Jack NicklausGolfPhoto: Moody College of Communication / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Carl LewisTrack & FieldPhoto: Bertolinephotos / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Stephen CurryBasketball
- Connor McDavidHockeyPhoto: All-Pro Reels / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Tier list instead?
Load all 32 into the tier list maker and sort them into S through F yourself: same entrants, no matchups.
Open the tier list makerMissing something?
Build your own athlete bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Decide your criteria before you start — peak, longevity or trophies — and hold to it all the way through.
- Start at 16 slots. If the result feels too obvious, replay at 32 so more of the 32 contenders make the field.
- If a matchup genuinely splits you, undo and replay it — a coin-flip pick in round one distorts everything below it.
Questions people ask
What is the best athlete?
According to 115 BracketRanker players, Lionel Messi (Soccer). It wins 74.4% of its head-to-head matchups (n = 316) and was champion in 21 of 115 brackets (18.3%).
How many contenders are in the Greatest Athletes of All Time bracket?
The pool holds 32 contenders. A default run uses 16 of them and takes 15 picks across 4 rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 16, 32 slots.
Which contenders are included?
Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Muhammad Ali, Lionel Messi, Tom Brady, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Wayne Gretzky, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth and Pele, plus 20 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Greatest Athletes of All Time bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 15 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. No account is needed, and a run saves after every pick, so you can stop and jump back in later.
Can I turn the result into S/A/B tiers?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other contender grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 15 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two contenders that never met. If you would rather place the contenders into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 32 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Can I compare my order with other people's?
Every completed bracket feeds the Greatest Athletes of All Time community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 32 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
What if a contender I wanted is missing?
Use the bracket maker: add your own contenders, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 32 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.