Who Is The Best Athlete Today?

In today's drug influenced sports world, it's really hard to determine who the best athlete is today? Or even performer, since athletes can be looked at as performers. On Sunday, history was made as Roger Federer won a recording tying 14th tennis Grand Slam event. Tiger woods came from behind to win his 67th (I think) PGA event. He'll be shooting for his 15th Grand Slam event (the PGA record is 18). So today I want to throw out the best in each sport and let you, the reader, chew on what I have. Comments are always welcome.

-Roger Federer. Not as dominant lately and many consider Rafael Nadal the best in tennis. But it's hard to argue with 14 Grans slams and only 27 (28 in August). Not to mention the 237 straight weeks as the top ranked player.

-Tiger Woods. 67 PGA wins and 14 Grand Slams. Probably the best golfer of all time, although the Grand Slam record will cement that status. And he's only 33 years old.

-Alex Rodriguez. I know, I know...the steroid thing really has tainted in what has become a great baseball career. It's hard to not see the numbers he has put up and not consider him the best right now. He's not great in clutch times, which taints his record as well. But if we're looking at pure numbers, then this is the man.

-Albert Pujols. If not ARoid, then this is the man for baseball. No one has performed what he has in such a short time. At only 29, he has a lifetime average of .334, over 300 HR's (5th youngest to reach that mark), 1600 hits going into this year and a slugging percentage of .634.
And he's clean. He really could assault most major baseball records. And he has a World Series ring.

-Jimmie Johnson. Laugh now, but three NASCAR chamionships in a row is hard to sneeze at. And still young.

-Usain Bolt. Fastest man alive with his 9.69 mark in the 100 meter dash. Also holds the 200 meter mark as well at 19.3 seconds. 3 gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, all world records (his 4x100 relay team also set the world record.

-Peyton Manning. I'm sure to get snickers on this one, but I don't know of too many football players today who can challenge what he has done. I'm not looking for someone who's only done it for two years (heir apparent Adrian Peterson), but someone over time. I can see Manning challenging the numbers Brett Favre and Dan Marino put up.

-LeBron James. This kid at a young age is truly amazing and from a statistical point of view, will challenge many of the great records of the NBA. No championship yet, which may ultimately taint his accomplishments. For the NBA, it may be argued that Kobe is the best and I can buy that, especially with his 3 NBA championships. But don't you think there's something about Kobe that makes you want to look at LeBron instead??

This is just a sampling, as I'm sure there's an argument for more or perhaps better. I leave that up to you to debate...

Jp