One of the continual questions in sports that annoys me to no end is 'Who is the greatest athlete currently in sports?'

Look, there is no answer. I don't care how many eggheads you put in one room, or how many math equations you do, it simply isn't going to happen. There is no correct answer.

But don't let my totally rational logic fool you. There are plenty of people out there who would love to argue this until their face turns blue. And apparently the Wall Street Journal is one of them.

Anyway, the Journal put together a panel of sports experts and had them grade athletes on, well, a lot of stuff.  Speed; vision and reflex; stamina and recovery; coordination and flexibility; power, strength and size; and success and competitiveness. The final category examined success—records held and victories—as well as competitiveness, based on the sport's popularity. Soccer, for example, the world's most popular sport, was judged the most competitive.

Just so you know, Yale statistician John Emerson helped normalize the scores so no single panelist could exert undue influence. I could care less.

Anyway, here's what they came up with. The greatest athletes in the world, from 1 to 10 are:

1. Roman Sebrle (Track and Field)
2. LeBron James (NBA)
3. Floyd Mayweather (Boxer)
4. LaDainian Tomlinson (NFL)
5. Roger Federer (Tennis)
6. Sidney Crosby (NHL)
7. Liu Xiang (Track and Field)
8. Jeremy Wariner (Track and Field)
9. Ronaldinho (Soccer)
10. Alex Rodriguez (MLB)

If you're surprised by who's #1, then you're probably equally shocked that guys like Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps aren't on there. But that's because the judges didn't give much weight to what they called "too-one dimensional sports."

But of course, how would you know Woods and Phelps are one-dimensional unless you tested them in other sports? Now do you see why this stuff is ridiculous?

Anyway, just so you know, Serble is still one heck of an athlete. The Czech decathlete can jump over Shaquille O’Neal (high jump). He can throw a 16-pound ball the length of a 53-foot yacht. From a running start, he can leap over a two-lane highway. He can run a mile in under 4 minutes and 30 seconds. And he was once impaled in the shoulder by a javelin, so you know he's tough.

However, I find it weird that we have three track and field athletes on the top ten list and only one player each from the NBA, NFL and NHL. To me, guys in the NBA, NFL and NHL are doing a lot more than the many track and field athletes.

But what do I know? I'm not a Yale statistician.

[Wall Street Journal via Fanhouse]