When ESPN came out with its list of the 100 best athletes of the 21st century, the track community came together in a rare display of unity to denounce the list as having way too many basketball players and about 97 too few track and field stars.

While we disagree with the rankings in solidarity with our readers, the Lap Count is a big believer in making meaningless lists to stir up controversy and generate clicks. In making these subjective rankings based on an arbitrary weighting of impossible-to-compare accomplishments, we primarily considered three things: 1. Did the athlete win a lot when it counted? 2. Was the athlete a world-beater over a long period of time? And 3. Did the athlete go faster/further/higher than everyone else in the world?

So without further ado, here are the TLC top 10 athletes of the 21st century. And yes, they’re all from track and field.

10. Faith Kipyegon

Olympics: 🥇🥇 ; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈; Outdoor WRs: 1500m & mile (both current)

The state of women’s middle-distance and distance running right now is – in a dumb word - bonkers. We’re seeing athletes casually trot past once impenetrable barriers, like sub-29 minutes for 10,000m and sub 3:50 for 1500m. A sub-14 5000m feels like an inevitability. And it’s not just one dominant athlete popping these once unthinkable times. There’s historic global depth across these events! And yet, no matter how loaded the 1500m or 5000m field, more often than not, it’s going to be Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon running away with it.

With two world records, two Olympic titles, and (as of 2023), the ability to win at both 1500m or 5000m against some of the best runners in history, Kipyegon has been pretty much unbeatable on the middle-distance circuit for the better part of the last decade. If she picks up Olympic golds three and four in a couple weeks, as she is favored to do, she’ll likely rise a lot higher in the rankings the next time we get around to it.

9. Sifan Hassan

Olympics: 🥇🥇🥉; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥈🥉🥉🥉; Outdoor WRs: mile (2019-2023), 10,000m (2021)

In a sport that is almost defined by its top athletes’ rigid and risk-averse approach to setting out a racing schedule, Dutch jill-of-all-trades Sifan Hassan shines as a wildcard outlier. Rather than take the safe approach and race one, or hell, even two events at the 2020 Olympics, Hassan opted for the triple. She ran three 1500m races, two rounds of the 5000m, and a 10,000m. And somehow walked away with three medals. Since then, she won the 2023 London Marathon in her debut at the distance, despite having to stop several times to stretch out her calves. Later that year, she hit the streets of Chicago and in her victorious performance there, ran the second fastest marathon of all-time: a staggering 2:13:44.

Hassan is not unbeatable over a certain distance in the way Kipyegon has been, but she’s been a gold medal contender – or winner – at distances ranging from 1500m to the marathon. In a sport that rewards specialization, she’s currently on the all-time top-10 list of the 1500m, mile, 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon – and as the world record holder in the one-hour run, it’s likely that the only reason why she isn’t higher up on the half marathon list is because she hasn’t gotten around to it yet.

8. Christian Taylor

Olympics: 🥇🥇; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥇🥇

Perhaps its recency bias and early-onset nostalgia for the just-retired triple jumper, but we wanted to be sure Christian Taylor gets the respect he deserves from this newsletter. From 2011 to 2019, Taylor was inarguably the greatest triple jumper in the world, winning six of the seven global finals during that time. Taylor is also the king of clutch, globally-speaking: he only has two U.S. titles, but six World/Olympic titles.

Taylor never got the world record he so craved, his 18.21m American record sticking him at #2 on the all-time list behind Brit Jonathan Edwards. He gave it a scare quite a few times: Only eight men in history have jumped 18 meters, and Taylor has done it four times. An Achilles injury may have prematurely shortened his career, as he was never the same jumper in the 2020s that he was in the 2010s, but his achievements in that decade alone earn him a spot on this list.

7. Tirunesh Dibaba

Olympics: 🥇🥇🥇🥉🥉🥉; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈; Outdoor WRs: 5000m (2012-2020)

Younger readers may remember the name Genzebe Dibaba, but they may not even realize that Genzebe’s older sister Tirunesh Dibaba was one of the greatest distance runners the 2000s decade has ever seen – and that’s including her compatriot Kenenisa Bekele. Bekele arguably deserves to be on this list as well, but his fellow Ethiopian has more Olympic medals over a longer period (2004 to 2016), with similar credentials across other championships (Tirunesh has 5 World track titles, 5 World XC titles) and a 14:11.15 5000m world record that was five seconds clear of the rest of the world for over a decade.

Dibaba did not have a long and successful marathon career, but she did finish on the podium in four World Majors, including a win in Chicago in 2017, and when she ran her PB of 2:17:56, it was at the time the third fastest women’s marathon in history behind two of the event’s all-time greats (Paula Radcliffe and Mary Keitany). Dibaba’s first World medal on the track came in 2003 and her last came in 2017, longevity that is rare, if unprecedented, in middle-distance running.

6. Mondo Duplantis

Olympics: 🥇; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥈; Outdoor WRs: pole vault (2020-current)

World record aside, Mondo Duplantis is on this list because he’s about as close to a sure thing as you get in not just track and field, but any sport. When he hoists his pole up and tears down the runway, it’s nearly a foregone conclusion that when the dust settles, he’ll have cleared a higher bar than any other man in the stadium. In fact, since 2020, he’s only failed to win four contests out of the 85 he contested (indoors and outdoors, including separate day prelims).

But we do have to talk about his world record… er… records. Duplantis became the world record holder in 2020 when he vaulted 6.17m in Poland. Since then, he’s raised his own bar seven more times, to where it currently stands, 6.24m. That’s the kind of multi-year heater only one other male pole vaulter has ever found himself on: the great Sergey Bubka, who, aside from Duplantis, is the sole man with a viable claim to the GOAT status in this event.

5. Ryan Crouser

Olympics: 🥇🥇; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥈; Outdoor WRs: shot put (2021-current)

One inarguable sign of greatness is having a whole technique named after you. The originator of the “Crouser slide” has certainly gotten a lot of use out of his invention, to the tune of two Olympic titles, two World titles outdoors, and a World Indoor title. Only one man in history has thrown the shot put over 23.30m; Crouser has done it four times. He personally owns 50% of the all-time top-10 list in the event, and since he started breaking the world record, he’s improved it by 44 centimeters.

Crouser’s performance in Budapest last year wasn’t his longest, but it was perhaps his most impressive. Battling blood clots in his left leg, he still managed to win his third straight global title in historic fashion: a 23.51m championship record and #2 all time throw (behind himself, of course). Once again, the 31-year-old has faced some health-related setbacks this season, but if he picks up a third straight Olympic gold in Paris, it’ll be hard to deny that he deserves a spot on any all-time athletes list, regardless of sport.

4. Yulimar Rojas

Olympics: 🥇🥈; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥇🥇; Outdoor WRs: triple jump (2021-current)

Now, I know what you’re thinking: that list of medals is a lot shorter than some of the other athletes ranked lower on this list. But you can’t medal multiple times at one championship in the triple jump! And what Rojas can – and has – done is make an absolute mockery of our previous standards for excellence in her specialty event, in addition to winning 5 straight global titles outdoors, 3 straight indoors, and 3 straight Diamond League finals.

Here’s what the all-time list currently look like in the women’s triple jump: Rojas #1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 9, 12, 14. Rojas’s 15.74m world record is thirty-four centimeters clear of the next name on the list. While an untimely injury means the Olympic champ won’t have the chance to defend her medal, the way she has truly redefined the event since 2017 means that there will be a 6-foot-4 shadow looming over the competition even in her absence.

3. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

Olympics: 🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉; Worlds: 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉

One thing ESPN did get get right was including the unstoppable “Pocket Rocket” on their little list. It’s hard to say that SAFP has been truly dominant over the 100 meters in the way Bolt was during his height, but her perseverance and championship mettle more than make up for picking up the occasional L. And going four for five in global 100-meter titles from 2008 to 2015 is an incredibly strong string of performances in perhaps the most competitive distance in the sport.

What about Allyson Felix, you might ask? Well the Fraser-Pryce of America is certainly worthy of a spot on this list, but in the interest of spreading the love (and deliberately stirring up controversy), we’ve nixed her in favor of SAFP’s individual accomplishments. Eight of SAFP’s 13 global outdoor titles come from individual events, compared with only five of Felix’s 21. Fraser-Pryce is #3 on the all-time 100m list at 10.60, and she’s clocked nine of the 21 sub-10.7s ever run. The next most is Elaine Thompson-Herah at four, and world record holder Florence Griffith-Joyner only has three. And not to mention that SAFP, at 37, will be competing in her fifth Olympic games this year, so all these stats are subject to improvement.

2. Eliud Kipchoge