Most Famous American Athletes

United States has produced 5,845 notable athletes throughout history, led by Muhammad Ali. Rankings are drawn from a cross-verified academic dataset of 152,953 people.

Category All
Citizenship All
MA
Muhammad Ali American Boxer 1942 – 2016
# 61
MJ
Magic Johnson American Basket Born 1959
# 549
LA
Lance Armstrong American Sport Born 1971
# 584
JO
Jesse Owens American Sprint 1913 – 1980
# 1,135
TW
Tiger Woods American Golf Born 1975
# 1,270
JR
Jackie Robinson American Baseball 1919 – 1972
# 1,505
JF
Joe Frazier American Boxer 1944 – 2011
# 1,543
CB
Charles Barkley American Basket Born 1963
# 1,728
DR
Dennis Rodman American Basket Born 1961
# 1,822
JW
Johnny Weissmuller American Swimmer 1904 – 1984
# 1,851
CJ
Caitlyn Jenner American Olympic Born 1949
# 1,923
LJ
LeBron James American Basket Born 1984
# 2,102
KA
Kurt Angle American Wrestler Born 1968
# 2,498
JD
Joe DiMaggio American Baseball 1914 – 1999
# 2,539
CE
Chris Evert American Player Born 1954
# 2,625
JL
Joe Louis American Boxer 1914 – 1981
# 2,631
JT
Jim Thorpe American Baseball 1887 – 1953
# 2,992
AP
Arnold Palmer American Golf 1929 – 2016
# 3,201
GF
George Foreman American Boxer Born 1949
# 3,307
HA
Hank Aaron American Baseball Born 1934
# 3,489