The greatest athlete I ever saw

I was a sportswriter for nearly 17 years, and I have been a sports fan for nearly half a century.

A little while back, someone asked me who was the greatest athlete I ever saw. At the time I went back and forth between Michael Jordan and John Elway, with Wayne Gretzky out there on the fringes of the argument.

I settled on Elway, maybe just to be a little ornery, but I did see him do some amazing things as the Denver Broncos quarterback during the two years I lived in Colorado.

But I think overlooked the greatest -- mostly because I was counting only humans.



The only athletic performance I ever saw that literally gave me chills -- and not just the first time I saw it -- was Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont Stakes. The horse they called Big Red had already won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes and was trying to become the first horse since 1948 to win the Triple Crown.

Sham, a great horse in his own right, had battled Big Red valiantly twice, coming up second in both races, and he was battling him again deep into the backstretch.

But Secretariat broke his heart, pulling away to the most dominant victory in the history of the Triple Crown. He won the race by 30 lengths and his time in the race is still the fastest ever on dirt for a mile and a half.

The greatest athlete I ever saw?

Big Red, no doubt.