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These are the moments that make you question what it truly means to be human. Join us as we count down the greatest sports achievements that pushed the boundaries of physical and mental possibility! Our countdown includes Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Alex Honnold, and more! Which do YOU think is the greatest athletic achievement of all time? Let us know in the comments!
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00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 sports moments
00:09that represent some of the highest levels of athletic performance imaginable.
00:2110. Eliud Kipchoge breaks the two-hour marathon barrier
00:24One of the great athletic achievements of the modern era came as recently as 2019
00:28from the world of marathon running.
00:46Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours
00:50while he completed the INEOS 159 Challenge in Vienna on October 12, 2019,
00:54finishing in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds.
01:08The endurance on display here was truly on another level, requiring Kipchoge to maintain
01:12a pace of roughly 2 minutes and 50 seconds per kilometer.
01:15The achievement was responsible for shattering one of sport's greatest perceived barriers,
01:19inspiring runners around the world to totally rethink endurance limits.
01:22It was a big relief that I will do it.
01:25I was really excited to go of that 400 meters, and where it was really packed with all the fans,
01:34and that was my first moment.
01:379. Don Bradman maintains an impossible batting average
01:40Pulling off an impressive statistical score or average over the course of one night can be tough,
01:44but to do it over an entire career is something entirely different.
01:47The skill that Bradman had, a bit like some of Steve Smith's batting,
01:51was being able to work the ball anywhere between third man and fine leg to the boundary.
01:57Sir Donald Bradman's test batting average of 99.94
02:00is widely regarded as the greatest statistical anomaly in any major sport.
02:04Across 52 test matches between 1928 and 1948,
02:08Bradman scored 6,996 runs and 80 completed innings while being dismissed only 70 times.
02:13These are the averages of every test cricket player.
02:16The higher the bar, the greater the number of players with that average score.
02:21Here's Alan Borda.
02:23Here's Brian Lara.
02:25Here's Sachin Tendulka.
02:27And here's Don Bradman with his iconic average of 99.94.
02:32On top of it all, if he had scored just four runs in his final test innings at the Oval
02:36in 1948,
02:37instead of being dismissed for a duck,
02:38his career average would have been exactly 100, a one-of-a-kind career.
02:42He famously fell four runs short of an average of 100 with a duck in his final innings.
02:48Number 8.
02:48Roger Bannister breaks the 4-minute mile barrier.
02:50For many, the 4-minute mile was the type of barrier that was simply impossible to break,
02:54a physiological limit that humans were simply unable to pass.
02:57The most sought-after target in athletics,
02:59the 4-minute mile, was achieved yesterday evening on the Oxford University track.
03:03Of course, that notion would be proven wrong on many occasions in the future.
03:06However, the first man to do so would be British neurologist Roger Bannister,
03:09a man who was not a full-time athlete but had the perfect formula for success.
03:13The tape is broken, and so is the record athletes have long been dreaming about.
03:17But at first, Bannister knows little about it.
03:19He stumbles into the arms of his coach, completely exhausted by his magnificent effort.
03:24He combined his physical prowess with scientific principles to aid his preparation,
03:27eventually posting a time of 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds.
03:31Within weeks of his record, a second runner broke the 4-minute limit,
03:34proving that a psychological barrier had been lifted.
03:36Well, all I can say is that I'm absolutely overwhelmed and delighted.
03:40It was a great surprise to me to be able to do it today, and I think I was very
03:44lucky.
03:45Number 7. Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in one game.
03:48On the long list of seemingly untouchable records in sports,
03:51Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game seems like it will never be equaled.
03:54Game against the Knicks began, and it was clear from the outset that it was going to be a magical
03:59night.
03:59There was no television coverage, and only a few thousand fans were in attendance.
04:03But the ones who witnessed it saw history unfold.
04:07It was the perfect storm of contributing factors.
04:10Wilt was a physical specimen that had no equal in the sport at that time,
04:13but it still required a truly insane level of stamina, consistency, and dominance to reach that point total.
04:18If we scored, he ran back to be on defense.
04:21By the time he got in front of midcourt, the fans had already started coming out of the court.
04:26The New York Knicks simply could not contain Chamberlain in this type of form,
04:30and by the time the four quarters were through, he had set a new benchmark for scoring.
04:34To this day, only Kobe Bryant and Bam Adebayo have even broken the 80-point mark.
04:3983 points for Bam Adebayo.
04:42He will come out of the game and hear it from the crowd.
04:46Number 6. Nadia Komanech scores gymnastics' first perfect 10.
04:50For any 14-year-old, the idea of even competing on a global stage is wishful thinking.
04:53I didn't really, I mean, I knew that 10 was a big deal because I've done gymnastics for 8, 9
05:00years before,
05:01and I've done competitions, and I did the same routines before.
05:05However, for Nadia Komanech at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, that's exactly what she did.
05:10It's not like she was there for a participation trophy either.
05:13No, when this young gymnast stepped up, she was aiming to do something truly remarkable.
05:16On that day, Komanech became the first gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect 10 in an Olympic competition.
05:21I didn't come here to Montreal to make history.
05:23I didn't even know what that meant to make history.
05:27Nobody told me that a perfect 10 was never scored in Olympic history.
05:31She ultimately received a further six perfect 10s during those games,
05:35winning three gold medals while transforming public expectations of what elite gymnastics could look like.
05:39The older I get, I realize that what I've done was such a big thing, which I didn't realize then.
05:49The scoring system had never anticipated such a high score, so the electronic scoreboard displayed 1.00 instead of 10
05:56.00.
05:57Number five, Jesse Owens sets four world records in 45 minutes.
06:01A year before he made a mockery of Adolf Hitler's Aryan superiority theory at the 1936 Olympics,
06:06Jesse Owens was already carving out his legacy as a generational athlete.
06:09Jesse Owens shook up the whole track world and announced to all that arguably the greatest athlete of the time
06:17wore scarlet and gray.
06:19The 1935 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan were the stage for what would become a truly legendary moment
06:25for Owens.
06:25You just cannot imagine anybody, anybody, having that type of performance anywhere or anytime.
06:32I mean, it was just unbelievable.
06:34Despite suffering a painful back injury the previous day,
06:37Owens equaled the world record in the 100-yard dash before setting world records in the long jump,
06:42the 220-yard sprint, and the 220-yard low hurdles.
06:45He did all of this within the space of around 45 minutes.
06:48It's something that will never be duplicated.
06:51A truly special display of speed, power, and incredible dynamism.
06:54Number 4. Simone Biles lands the impossible Yurchenko double pike.
06:58Modern excellence in gymnastics has been perfectly defined by one athlete's incredible run of results.
07:03Since the very first moment that we actually saw this with our own eyes right in front of us,
07:09it has been absolutely unbelievable to watch.
07:14Simone Biles became the first woman ever to successfully land a Yurchenko double pike in competition
07:18at the 2021 U.S. Classic before then repeating it at major championships internationally.
07:30Biles had been redefining what was expected of women's gymnastics for years prior to this.
07:34While some experts believe that the Yurchenko double pike was too dangerous for most athletes to even attempt
07:39due to risk of catastrophic injury, Biles went out there and proved the world wrong.
07:43You know, yesterday Simone told us that she likes to let her gymnastics speak for her.
07:48Well, the queen has definitely spoken.
07:50Number 3. Michael Phelps wins 8 gold medals in Beijing.
07:53When Mark Spitz took home 7 Olympic gold medals in 1972, the idea of anybody beating that record was pretty
07:59far-fetched.
08:00However, when Michael Phelps started to pick up momentum in 2008, the impossible began to look increasingly more realistic.
08:06The versatility that Phelps displayed was astonishing, and when the dust had settled, he had 8 gold medals in his
08:11possession.
08:117 of his victories came in world record times, while the 8th required one of the closest finishes in Olympic
08:16history
08:17when teammate Jason Lezac produced an astonishing anchor leg to preserve America's relay victory.
08:22Phelps at Beijing 2008 is in the running for one of the greatest sustained displays of athletic excellence ever witnessed.
08:27Number 2. Alex Honnold free solos El Capitan.
08:31The art of free soloing is truly among the most dangerous athletic pursuits in the world.
08:35If the ultimate dream is to solo El Cap, then I need a good map of what that will take.
08:42Climbing monstrous rock walls without any harness or safety gear is not the kind of thing you can make mistakes
08:47at.
08:47Acclaimed climber Alex Honnold decided that he wanted to become the first person to free solo the free rider route
08:52on El Capitan.
08:53Oh my god, I can't believe what I just witnessed.
08:56The psychological and physical effort required is far beyond what the vast majority of athletes will ever encounter.
09:01Yet when push came to shove, Honnold completed his journey, chronicling the climb in the award-winning documentary Free Solo,
09:07a moment that redefined climbing forever.
09:09You face your fear because your gold demands it.
09:13That is the goddamn warrior spirit.
09:16Number 1. Usain Bolt obliterates the 100-meter world record.
09:19When you're already a world record breaker, a gold medal holder and universally seen as the fastest man alive,
09:25there's not too much else you can really do to prove your superiority.
09:28The fastest men on the world are down there at the end of the straight for the final, the men's
09:35100 meters.
09:36Or at least that's how most athletes would see it.
09:38Usain Bolt's 9.58 second 100 meters at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin
09:43is widely regarded as the greatest sprint ever run.
09:469.58!
09:49Smashing the world record!
09:51Unbelievable!
09:53He's done it again!
09:55Despite already being the king, Bolt somehow improved his own mark by an astonishing 0.11 seconds,
10:00an enormous margin at the elite level where records are usually broken by hundredths.
10:03Bolt was way better than his contemporaries,
10:05and clearly faster than even his most devoted of fans realized.
10:08We cannot underestimate what this man has done for the sport of athletics.
10:13But what do you consider to be the most impressive sporting performance of all time?
10:17Let us know in the comments below.
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