In a list of great individual sporting achievements, what tops Lance Armstrong's seven consecutive victories in the three-week-long Tour de France? According to Forbes.com, Roger Bannister's four-minute mile run in 1954 is the greatest individual athletic achievement of all time.
"In truth, there is no clear-cut number-one choice," conceded Bob Costas, a journalist and NBC commentator, who was one of the experts on the forbes.com panel that helped select the 20 sporting achievements that the sites editors and readers then voted on. "You could make a reasonable case for a dozen different achievements."
Bannister's record stood for just six weeks and the mile record now stands at three minutes 43.1 seconds.
Forbes.com's top 20 individual sporting achievements
1 Roger banister breaks four-minute mile
2 Lance Armstrong wins seven consecutive Tours de France
3 Jesse Owens' four world records in 70 minutes
4 Nadia Comaneci's seven perfect 10s
5 Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak
6 Muhammad Ali's three heavyweight titles
7 Mark Spitz's seven gold medals
8 Gertrude Ederle's English Channel record swim
9 Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mt. Everest
10 Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in a season
11 Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game
12 Bob Beamon smashing world long jump record
13 Michael Jordan: Ten Seasons At The Top
14 Bobby Jones: Golf's Grand Slam
15 Wayne Gretzky: 2,857 Points
18 Martina Navratilova's 20 Wimbledon Titles
17 Bill Russell's 11 NBA Championships
18 Don Larsen's 1956 perfect world series game
19 Eric Heiden's five individual gold medals
20 Gordie Howe's 33 professional hockey seasons
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