# The 23 Greatest Track and Field Athletes of All Time

> Sprinters, throwers and marathoners are measured here against each other, which is exactly the comparison their stopwatches can't make.

*By YPB Team · Published September 29, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-23-greatest-track-and-field-athletes-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Al Oerter** — score 1000/1000
   American discus thrower who won four Olympics in a row from 1956 to 1968.
2. **Michael Johnson** — score 810/1000
   American who won the 200 m and 400 m double at the 1996 Olympics in gold spikes.
3. **Usain Bolt** — score 783/1000
   Jamaican sprinter who still holds the 100 m and 200 m world records set in 2009.
4. **Florence Griffith Joyner** — score 762/1000
   Flo-Jo, whose 1988 world records in the 100 m and 200 m still stand.
5. **Allyson Felix** — score 724/1000
   American sprinter with more Olympic track medals than any other woman.
6. **Sergey Bubka** — score 707/1000
   Ukrainian pole vaulter who set 35 world records and was the first to clear six metres, in 1985.
7. **Eliud Kipchoge** — score 656/1000
   Kenyan marathoner and two-time Olympic champion who ran the first sub-two-hour marathon, in an unofficial race.
8. **Mondo Duplantis** — score 656/1000
   Swedish pole vaulter who broke Bubka's 26-year-old outdoor record in 2020 and keeps raising the world record a centimetre at a time.
9. **Paavo Nurmi** — score 647/1000
   The Flying Finn, winner of nine Olympic golds in distance running in the 1920s.
10. **Bob Beamon** — score 647/1000
   His 8.90 m long jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics beat the world record by 55 cm.
11. **Yelena Isinbayeva** — score 647/1000
   Pole vaulter who was the first woman to clear five metres, in 2005.
12. **Edwin Moses** — score 579/1000
   400 m hurdler who went nearly ten years unbeaten in the event.
13. **Kenenisa Bekele** — score 579/1000
   Ethiopian who held the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records for more than 15 years.
14. **Jesse Owens** — score 502/1000
   Won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
15. **Jackie Joyner-Kersee** — score 502/1000
   American heptathlete and long jumper whose heptathlon world record has stood since 1988.
16. **Jan Železný** — score 413/1000
   Czech javelin thrower with three Olympic golds and a world record from 1996.
17. **Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone** — score 413/1000
   American hurdler who has broken the 400 m hurdles world record again and again.
18. **Haile Gebrselassie** — score 312/1000
   Ethiopian distance runner who broke more than 20 world records from 5,000 m to the marathon.
19. **Carl Lewis** — score 312/1000
   American sprinter and long jumper with nine Olympic gold medals.
20. **Faith Kipyegon** — score 312/1000
   Kenyan middle-distance runner with three straight Olympic 1,500 m titles.
21. **Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce** — score 193/1000
   Jamaican sprinter with two Olympic 100 m titles and five world titles in the event.
22. **Emil Zátopek** — score 193/1000
   Czech runner who won the 5,000 m, 10,000 m and marathon at the 1952 Olympics.
23. **Hicham El Guerrouj** — score 193/1000
   Moroccan middle-distance runner whose 1,500 m and mile world records date from the late 1990s.

Tags: sports, olympics, athletics