The email I sent him:

Let me start by saying I’m a cyclist and I agree with you; Lance Armstrong in
not the greatest athlete ever. Neither is Bonds, Ruth, Ali, etc. The truth is
no one is “the greatest athlete ever”. No one ever has been and no one ever
will be. How can you compare different athletes from different sports and
different eras? It can’t realistically be done. Titles like that are created
by people like you; sports journalists. They make for good headlines, create
discussion, controversy, etc.

That being said, when you say Lance cannot be the greatest athlete ever
because “he rides a bicycle” you are attempting to diminish his (an all other
cyclist’s) accomplishments by saying it is some how less of a sport when
compared to baseball, football, or basketball. What you fail to realize is
that similar arguments can be made for all three of the major sports:

Baseball: How can a baseball player be the greatest athlete ever when players
spend more time standing around or sitting than anything else?

Football: How can a football player be the greatest athlete ever when they
only play half of the game?

How can a basketball player be the greatest athlete ever when they can come out
of the game whenever they are tired?

You mentioned Muhammad Ali in your article. How can he be the greatest athlete
ever when he was able to take a break every 3 minutes?

As you can see, these arguments are flawed. They assume that endurance is the
most important trait of an athlete. This is very similar to your argument,
which seams to put hand-eye coordination above all else.

As you can see, comparing athletes from different sports is comparing apples to
oranges. Each sport requires different skills and attributes in order to
excel. Saying that one skill or attribute is more important than another is
just being bias towards the sports that you feel are more important.

His responce:

Thanks for the note.

I appreciate it.

john