Paavo Nurmi
Allyson Felix
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The verdict
Paavo Nurmi leads 2 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Paavo Nurmi at #3 and Allyson Felix at #11.
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The case for Paavo Nurmi
The Flying Finn defined distance running for a generation. Between 1920 and 1928 Nurmi won nine Olympic gold medals and three silvers — twelve in all, still the most any track and field athlete has won at the Games — across distances from 1500m to the 10,000m and cross country. At the 1924 Paris Olympics he won five golds, including the 1500m and 5000m finals barely an hour apart, running each with a stopwatch in his hand to hold an exact pace. Over his career he set 22 official world records at distances from 1500m to 20 kilometres. Nurmi ran with a metronomic, even-paced style that was revolutionary in an age of erratic racing, and his mastery of tempo effectively invented modern pacing. The Finnish state built its athletic identity around him, and the flame at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics was lit by Nurmi himself — the sport's first true international superstar.
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.