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Rank 132Up 2
#13 in Greatest Olympians
of 16 ranked entries
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Track & Field · United States
Her 1988 heptathlon world record of 7,291 points has now stood for well over three decades, untouched by an event whose scoring rewards genuinely all-round athleticism more than any other on the track. Recorded specifics: country United States, first games 1984, olympic golds 3. Panel highlighted heptathlon world record still standing since 1988, 3 Olympic golds across four Games and also medalled in the individual long jump, a rare double specialty. The reservation on record is never matched her heptathlon dominance in a standalone sprint or jump event.
Track & Field
Score breakdown
How Jackie Joyner-Kersee earned 76.9
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Greatest Olympians.
- Peak Olympic dominanceweight 30%
- 75.0
- Medal haul & goldsweight 30%
- 76.4
- Longevity across Gamesweight 20%
- 77.9
- Legacy & influence on the Gamesweight 20%
- 79.3
On the record
Recorded detail
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| First Games | 1984 |
| Olympic golds | 3 |
| Rating | 8.7 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Heptathlon world record still standing since 1988
- 3 Olympic golds across four Games
- Also medalled in the individual long jump, a rare double specialty
Where it gives ground
- Never matched her heptathlon dominance in a standalone sprint or jump event
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
Rank 01Editor’s pickMichael Phelps
Swimming · United States · 2000–2016
Twenty-eight Olympic medals, twenty-three of them gold — both records by margins that make the runner-up look distant. Eight golds at a single Games in Beijing 2008 is unlikely ever to be threatened.
98.0/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 02Editor’s pickLarisa Latynina
Gymnastics · Soviet Union
Eighteen total Olympic medals across 1956, 1960 and 1964 held the all-sport record for forty-eight years until Phelps finally passed it in 2012. Nine of those medals are gold.
97.6/100 Top 49 score2Up 2
Rank 03Editor’s pickUsain Bolt
Track & Field · Jamaica · 2002–2017
Ran 9.58 seconds for 100 metres in Berlin in 2009, a mark nobody has come within a tenth of since. Won gold in the 100m and 200m at three consecutive Olympics, a sprint double no one had repeated even once before him.
95.6/100 Top 49 score2Down 2
Rank 04Simone Biles
Gymnastics · United States · 2013–present
Skills across three different apparatuses now carry her name in the Code of Points, a level of risk no other gymnast has landed successfully in competition. The most decorated gymnast in World Championship history, full stop.
93.6/100 Top 49 score2Up 2
Rank 05Mark Spitz
Swimming · United States
Seven golds at a single Games — Munich 1972 — every one of them in world-record time, a single-Olympics standard that stood alone until Phelps’s eight in 2008. Two more golds from 1968 round out a genuinely dominant career.
90.6/100 Top 49 score4Down 4
Rank 06Nadia Comăneci
Gymnastics · Romania
Scored gymnastics’ first-ever perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, at 14, on a scoreboard that literally was not built to display a four-digit score. Five Olympic golds across two Games followed the moment that made her famous.
89.4/100 Top 49 score1Down 1
Rank 07Carl Lewis
Track & Field · United States · 1979–1996
Nine Olympic golds across four Games, matching the mark Paavo Nurmi set in the 1920s, built on a long jump win streak that ran a full decade unbeaten.
87.3/100 Top 49 score2Up 2
Rank 08Jesse Owens
Track & Field · United States · 1933–1936
Won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in front of a regime staging the Games as a showcase of Aryan supremacy. The political weight of that performance still outstrips the athletic one, and the athletic one alone would be legendary.
85.5/100 Top 49 score1Down 1
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