Athletics (27 articles)

1. Roger Bannister
2. Bob Beamon
3. Fanny Blankers-Koen
4. Usain Bolt
5. Sergey Bubka
6. Sebastian Coe
7. Mary Decker
8. Hicham El Guerrouj
9. Dick Fosbury
10. Haile Gebrselassie
11. Yelena Isinbayeva
12. Michael Johnson
13. Rafer Johnson
14. Florence Griffith Joyner
15. Kipchoge Keino
16. Jackie Joyner-Kersee
17. Stefka Kostadinova
18. Carl Lewis
19. Bob Mathias
20. Bobby Morrow
21. Edwin Moses
22. Paavo Nurmi
23. Jesse Owens
24. Oscar Pistorius
25. Wilma Rudolph
26. Lasse Virén
27. Emil Zátopek

Auto racing (8 articles)

1. Mario Andretti
2. Juan Manuel Fangio
3. A. J. Foyt
4. Richard Petty
5. Alain Prost
6. Michael Schumacher
7. Ayrton Senna
8. Jackie Stewart

Chess (4 articles)

1. Alexander Alekhine
2. Bobby Fischer
3. Garry Kasparov
4. Wilhelm Steinitz

Cycling (2 articles)

1. Jacques Anquetil
2. Eddy Merckx

Figure skating (2 articles)

1. Scott Hamilton
2. Sonja Henie

Golf (7 articles)

1. Ben Hogan
2. Jack Nicklaus
3. Arnold Palmer
4. Gary Player
5. Sam Snead
6. Annika Sörenstam
7. Tiger Woods

Gymnastics (4 articles)

1. Nadia Comăneci
2. Olga Korbut
3. Larisa Latynina
4. Vitaly Scherbo

Martial arts (10 articles)

Boxing (7 articles)

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Henry Armstrong
3. Jack Dempsey
4. Sugar Ray Leonard
5. Joe Louis
6. Manny Pacquiao
7. Sugar Ray Robinson

Wrestling (2 articles)

1. Kurt Angle
2. Aleksandr Karelin

Other (1 article)

1. Bruce Lee

Swimming (6 articles)

1. Dawn Fraser
2. Ryan Lochte
3. Michael Phelps
4. Mark Spitz
5. Ian Thorpe
6. Johnny Weissmuller

Tennis (16 articles)

1. Björn Borg
2. Margaret Court
3. Chris Evert
4. Roger Federer
5. Althea Gibson
6. Pancho Gonzales
7. Steffi Graf
8. Billie Jean King
9. Rod Laver
10. Suzanne Lenglen
11. Rafael Nadal
12. Martina Navratilova
13. Pete Sampras
14. Bill Tilden
15. Serena Williams
16. Venus Williams

Multiple sports (4 articles)

1. Bo Jackson
2. Anthony Mundine
3. Jim Thorpe
4. Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Miscellaneous (16 articles)

Badminton (1 article)

1. Lin Dan

Biathlon (1 article)

1. Ole Einar Bjørndalen

Climbing and mountaineering (5 articles)

1. Edmund Hillary
2. Junko Tabei
3. Reinhold Messner
4. Tenzing Norgay
5. Dean Potter

Equestrianism (1 article)

1. Reiner Klimke

Skateboarding (1 article)

1. Tony Hawk

Skiing (3 articles)

1. Marit Bjørgen
2. Jean-Claude Killy
3. Ingemar Stenmark

Speed skating (4 articles)

1. Bonnie Blair
2. Eric Heiden
3. Johann Olav Koss
4. Apolo Anton Ohno

American football (6 articles)

1. Jim Brown
2. Dick Butkus
3. Joe Montana
4. Jerry Rice
5. O. J. Simpson
6. Johnny Unitas

Association football (28 articles)

1. Franz Beckenbauer
2. David Beckham
3. George Best
4. Gianluigi Buffon
5. Iker Casillas
6. Bobby Charlton
7. Johan Cruyff
8. Kenny Dalglish
9. Alfredo Di Stéfano
10. Eusébio
11. Garrincha
12. Ryan Giggs
13. Mia Hamm
14. Paolo Maldini
15. Diego Maradona
16. Stanley Matthews
17. Lionel Messi
18. Gerd Müller
19. Pelé
20. Michel Platini
21. Ferenc Puskás
22. Ronaldo
23. Cristiano Ronaldo
24. Peter Schmeichel
25. Marco van Basten
26. George Weah
27. Lev Yashin
28. Zinedine Zidane

Baseball (12 articles)

1. Hank Aaron
2. Roberto Clemente
3. Ty Cobb
4. Lou Gehrig
5. Mickey Mantle
6. Willie Mays
7. Stan Musial
8. Sadaharu Oh
9. Satchel Paige
10. Jackie Robinson
11. Babe Ruth
12. Cy Young

Basketball (12 articles)

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2. Sergei Belov
3. Larry Bird
4. Wilt Chamberlain
5. Bob Cousy
6. Tim Duncan
7. LeBron James
8. Magic Johnson
9. Michael Jordan
10. Shaquille O'Neal
11. Dražen Petrović
12. Bill Russell

Cricket (12 articles)

1. Sydney Barnes
2. Don Bradman
3. W. G. Grace
4. Jack Hobbs
5. Douglas Jardine
6. Brian Lara
7. Muttiah Muralitharan
8. Ricky Ponting
9. Viv Richards
10. Garfield Sobers
11. Sachin Tendulkar
12. Shane Warne

Ice hockey (4 articles)

1. Viacheslav Fetisov
2. Wayne Gretzky
3. Gordie Howe
4. Vladislav Tretiak

Rugby (4 articles)

1. Gareth Edwards
2. Jonah Lomu
3. Colin Meads
4. Dally Messenger

Miscellaneous (6 articles)

Field hockey (3 articles)

1. Luciana Aymar
2. Dhyan Chand
3. Jamie Dwyer

Rowing (1 article)

1. Steve Redgrave

Volleyball (1 article)

1. Karch Kiraly

Water polo (1 article)

1. Paul Radmilovic

1. Sepp Blatter
2. Bear Bryant
3. Pierre de Coubertin
4. Abner Doubleday
5. Phil Jackson
6. Vince Lombardi
7. James Naismith
8. Pete Rozelle
9. Juan Antonio Samaranch
10. Pat Summitt