Best Athletics Athletes of All Time

Who are the greatest athletes of all time? Explore the leading athletes in Sport Ranking’s historical Athletics ranking, based on results from major international competitions across different eras.

Greatest Men’s Athletics Athletes

Athletics Men

All-Time ranking TOP 10

#	Athlete	Country	Points
1	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	388
2	Kenenisa Bekele	Ethiopia	369
3	Carl Lewis	United States	336
4	Armand Duplantis	Sweden	310
5	Sergey Bubka	Ukraine	296
6	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia	292
7	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	268
8	Paavo Nurmi	Finland	266
9	Jan Železný	Czech Republic	261
10	Michael Johnson	United States	258

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Greatest Women’s Athletics Athletes

Athletics Women

All-Time ranking TOP 10

#	Athlete	Country	Points
1	Yelena Isinbayeva	Russia	305
2	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	United States	285
3	Merlene Ottey	Slovenia	272
4	Valerie Adams	New Zealand	266
5	Faith Kipyegon	Kenya	263
6	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia	257
7	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia	254
8	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	Jamaica	249
9	Heike Drechsler	Germany	241
10	Sifan Hassan	Netherlands	236

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How the All-Time Ranking Works

The ranking is based on global and continental championships, which are weighted according to their importance on the international stage. The system also includes the Diamond League and its historical predecessors.

Team events are valued at three times the points of individual disciplines to increase their importance in national rankings, but they are not included in individual rankings. The World Athletics Awards do not count towards the discipline rankings, only towards the overall athletics ranking.

The achievement and holding of a world record are also rewarded, representing a significant performance milestone. Holding the world record on short distances has only been awarded points since the time of automatic timing.

Learn more about Athletics scoring →

Best Athletics Athletes