Ronaldo, Messi, Bolt, Ronaldinho: The 30 greatest athletes of the 21st century

Who is the greatest athlete of the 21st century?

With legendary sportspeople like Muhammad Ali, Steffi Graf, Pele, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Jesse Owens and many more off the table, the search for number one status narrows, but the task becomes no easier.

Thats because the turn of the century has still been full to the brim with sportsmen and women who rank amongst the greatest to have ever served an ace, completed a tumble turn, scored a free-kick or gobbled up 100 metres.

Whether it’s the timeless golfing achievements of Tiger Woods or Serena Williams winning 23 Grand Slam titles, the last 22 years have been well and truly thronged with all-time greats.

As such, there is no one person who is qualified to answer who the greatest athlete of the 21st century really is by themselves, but rather the collective voice of sports fans is better off giving it a go.

And thanks to the interactive list titled: “Top 10 Best Sports Athletes of the 21st Century” over at thetoptens.com, we are indeed able to see who comes out on top when the votes of the masses are aggregated.

Now, publicly available votes are by no means a flawless system, particularly if people are just blindly voting for their favourites, but it’s nevertheless a more representative way of answering the question at hand.

As such, let us speculate no more because the people have spoken, and you can check out who they consider to be the 30 greatest athletes of the 21st century down below:

30. Muttiah Muralitharan (cricket)

29. Andrew Johns (rugby league)

28. Ma Long (table tennis)

27. Lewis Hamilton (motor racing)

26. Lauren Jackson (basketball)

25. Lasha Talakhadze (weightlifter)

24. Drew Brees (American football)

23. Valentino Rossi (motor racing)

22. Sidney Crosby (ice