Public Rates Tiger Woods as World's Greatest Athlete

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Traditionally, the honorary title of "world's greatest athlete" is reserved for winners of the Olympic decathlon. Golf isn't one of the 10 sports that makes up the decathlon, but if it were, decathletes might find themselves in the same position as the world's professional golfers -- competing for second place when Tiger Woods tees off.

A new Gallup poll conducted the weekend of August 24-27, 2000 shows Americans consider Woods to be the "world's greatest active athlete." Those interviewed were asked to name their choice without being prompted with a list of names, and three out of 10 selected Woods. By comparison, the second choice was Michael Jordan with 4% -- even though Jordan retired from professional basketball last year. Baseball star Mark McGwire received 3%, and Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles garnered 2%.

Other athletes receiving at least 1% support include Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, quarterbacks Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers and Troy Aikman of the Dallas Cowboys, tennis star Venus Williams, and two-time winner of the Tour de France, cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Woods Also Enjoys High Public Appeal
Woods has been the subject of several Gallup polls this year, during which he has won three of golf's four major tournaments and eight tournaments overall. In June, 88% of Americans gave Woods a favorable approval rating -- one of the highest ever recorded by Gallup for an athlete. In addition, a Gallup poll conducted in March before the 2000 Masters tournament found that golfers consider Woods not only the best golfer in the game today, but perhaps the greatest golfer ever. That honor is usually accorded to Jack Nicklaus, but in the March poll, 53% of golf fans said Tiger Woods is better today than Nicklaus was in his prime during the 1970s. Forty-one percent still believe Nicklaus was better then than Woods is now.

Survey Methods
The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national samples of 1,019, 1,021, and 998 adults, 18 years and older, conducted August 24-27, June 22-25, and March 30-April 2, 2000, respectively. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

In your opinion, who is the greatest athlete active in the world of sports today? [Open-end and code]

Next, we'd like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of this person -- or if you have never heard of him. First, …. How about …? [RANDOM ORDER]

Tiger Woods

Who do you think is the better golfer -- Tiger Woods today or Jack Nicklaus in his prime?

BASED ON – 264 -- GOLF FANS; +/- 7 PCT PTS