Michael Johnson
Allyson Felix
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Allyson Felix leads 2 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Michael Johnson at #7 and Allyson Felix at #11.
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The case for Michael Johnson
Johnson ran with a bolt-upright, short-stride style that coaches said should not work and that no one could beat. In 1996 in Atlanta he became the only man to win the 200m and 400m at the same Olympics, and he did it by demolishing the 200m world record with 19.32 — a mark so far ahead of its time it stood for twelve years until Bolt. His 400m record of 43.18, set in 1999, lasted seventeen years. He won four Olympic golds and eight World Championship titles, and was never beaten in a 400m final at a global championship across a decade. Johnson turned the one-lap sprint into a discipline of controlled, even-paced power rather than lung-bursting panic, and his combination of the 200m and 400m in one body — two events with opposing demands — has no real parallel in the sport's history.
The case for Allyson Felix
Felix retired as the most decorated athlete in World Championships history — 20 medals, 14 of them gold — and the most decorated American in Olympic track and field, with 11 Olympic medals including seven golds across five Games from 2004 to 2020. A 200m and 400m specialist who became the sport's greatest relay weapon, she anchored and split for US teams that seemed unbeatable, while also winning individual world titles at both distances. Her longevity was extraordinary: she medalled at global championships in three different decades. Off the track she became an equally important figure, publicly challenging her sponsor over maternity protections after a dangerous pregnancy in 2018 and helping force change across the industry. Judged on sustained excellence and sheer accumulation of championship medals, no woman in the sport's history collected more, and few did so while reshaping its business as profoundly.