Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics.

Owens said, "People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals."

SirGaribaldi with the worst post in the worst OOT thread ever (ok not really but it's still pretty bad)? Surely that's a pretty great accomplishment.

Barry Bonds having 500+ home runs and 500+ stolen bases is pretty impressive imo

Not bad, but Bonds OBPing .609 in a season is still one of the more absurd stats I've ever seen.

I don't know squat about cricket but simply looking at the statistics you have to consider Donald Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94. Anything over 50 is considered exceptional and only one other player ever has had an average over 61. According to wiki a lot of statisticians (so I'm sure poker players can appreciate it, at least) claim he was the greatest sportsman in any sport.

Did athletics only start in the mid '70s or something? I wanna go deep on this one and nominate Melankomas of Caria's victory at the 207th Olympiad as the greatest sports accomplishment in history. He was the best boxer without throwing a punch. He simply evaded his opponents until they gave up, exhausted and demoralised.

Twelve three minute rounds requires amazing stamina, and this guy apparently fought all day in the hot sun. The only possible objection is that his story may be apocryphal.

Sorry Tom Demaine! Didn't expect to see a link that early in a thread like this.

so just slightly less real than sklansky's weightlifter

Seems legit

Michael Phelps

I don't think there are any that come close statistically.

Disqualified for his epic slinkjob whiffing on his final at-bat (or whatever) and missing out on the triple-digit average

Secretariat winning the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths and smashing the record by over 2 seconds.

It's Bradman by far, a baseball player would have to average 2-3HR per game to even come close to doing anything as statistically impressive

On my phone, so no link, but youtube it and you'll see.