Historic Olympian Michael Phelps finishes No. 1 in ESPN’s top 100 athletes of the 21st century rankings

Has the thought of who are the most successful athletes over the years ever crossed your mind?

Lionel Messi (football/soccer), Floyd Mayweather (boxing), Serena Williams (tennis), Lewis Hamilton (auto racing) Lebron James (basketball), Tom Brady (American football), Sidney Crosby (hockey) and plenty of other athletes have dominated in their selective sports in the past century.

Olympians like Simone Biles (gymnastics), Usain Bolt (track) have so many gold medals that they would not be able to all fit them all into a trophy cabinent, representing their countries against the best comeptition every time they stepped foot onto their competitive surfaces.

While you may have a hard time with a naming a list of every top athlete of this century, worldwide sports news conglomerate ESPN compiled over 70,000 votes from various contributors to come up with the rankings for the top 100 best professional athletes since 2000 and the person who finished No. 1 is a local of Arizona who also has ties to ASU.

Phelps’ swimming dominance = best athlete of 21st century

Above every other name that cracked the rankings, 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was first based on the vast amount of major accomplishments he achieved in his storied swimming career.

Phelps holds the record for being a 28-time Olympic medalist, won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games  (most at one Olympics ever), won 33 medals at the World Championships and 21 at the Pan Pacific Championships. He also accomplished a remarkable 39 world records.

Going on a ridiculous tear in swimming, the Baltimore native is arguably the most decorated Olympian to ever compete in any sport. He won six gold and two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Games, four gold and two silver in London during the 2012 Games and five gold and one silver in Rio in 2016 along with his eight golds in China.

When talking about Phelps and all that he accomplished, ESPN senior writer Alyssa Roenigk believed he was nearly unstoppable against his competion.

“At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps earned a historic eight gold medals, more than any athlete in a single Olympics, while breaking world records in seven of his eight races,” Roenigk said. “Throughout the Games, fans and members of the media tried to crack the code on what made Phelps – who eventually won 23 Olympic gold medals and became the most decorated Olympian of all time – so unbeatable.”

Phelps, his wife Nicole and their four sons have resided in Paridise Valley and been seen at various places around the Valley like Arizona Diamondbacks games and at TPC Scottsdale for golfing events.

One of Phelps’ mentors and coaches who helped him go the run he went when swimming, now-former ASU Swim and Dive coach Bob Bowman, worked with him as Phelps was a volunteer assistant coach for the Sun Devils. In Bowman’s final year of coaching Arizona State before joining Texas, ASU won the programs first 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming & Diving Championship title as well as being back-to-back Pac-12 Conference champs.

While there are other athletes who people can argue their case on why they should be ahead of Phelps, there is no denying how special he was and how much better he was than his competition, deservingly being No. 1 in the 21st Century.

Other notable names with Arizona ties include:

• Former Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neale (17)
• Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi (21)
• ASU baseball great Barry Bonds (38)
• Suns forward Kevin Durant (39)
• Former Arizona Diamonbacks pitcher Max Scherzer (46)
• Suns icon Steve Nash (51)
• former Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt (58)
• former ASU guard James Harden (67)
• ASU golf legend Phil Mickelson (68)
• former Suns guard Jason Kidd (69)
• former Suns guard Chris Paul (83)