The Most Dominant Athlete Ever
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Who is the most dominant athlete of all time? It's an interesting question and one that has started endless pub debates. Is it a basketball player like Michael Jordan? A baseball player like Babe Ruth? Or a soccer player like Lionel Messi? Or maybe it's an athlete in an individual sport like Tiger Woods or Serena Williams? My answer to this question of who is the most dominant athlete of all time might surprise you. Find out who I'm talking about on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Music

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Now, before I answer the question, I have to note that I was very particular about the words I chose. I never asked who was the greatest athlete of all time or who was the best, meaning I'm not talking about a person who might be the fastest or the strongest. So I'm not talking about Usain Bolt or Hafthor Bjornsson. He was the guy who was the mountain in the Game of Thrones and just set a world's record for the deadlift.

I'm talking about who is the most dominant, the person who crushed their competition, someone who rose to the top of their sport and then stayed there for a very long time, someone who just kept winning and winning and winning.

The person I have in mind was described by the New York Times as the most dominant athlete in any sport in the country. And after considerable research, I'd say he might be the most dominant athlete in any sport in the world. Who am I talking about? Why, none other than the legendary Alan Francis.

Now you're probably asking yourself, who in the world is Alan Francis? If this guy is so great, why haven't I heard of him? Well, Alan Francis is the greatest horseshoe pitcher in history. Now you might be saying to yourself that horseshoe pitching isn't a real sport. Well, it is certainly a sport as much as golf or bowling is a sport. And quite frankly, if curling could be an Olympic event, then I think horseshoe pitching can be a sport.

So let's unpack the legend of Alan Francis just to see how dominant he really is. Alan grew up on a farm in Missouri where he learned how to pitch horseshoes from his family. He won his first Junior Boys World Championship at the age of 12 in 1982, which was the first of four consecutive Junior World Championships, which was a record at the time.

In 1989, he won his first men's world championship at the age of 19, setting a record for the youngest person ever to win a world championship. After some fourth and third place finishes at the world championship in 90, 91, and 92, he won his second world championship in 1993. In 1994, he again finished third in the world, and in 1995, he started what can only be described as one of the most incredible runs in the history of sports.

He won the world championship in 1995, and in 1996, and in 1997, and in 1998, and in 1999. By the year 2000, at the start of the new millennium, he had already won seven world titles and was just getting warmed up. He won again in 2001, and in 2003, he won the first of what would be a record eight consecutive world championships.

In 2011, he was the runner-up at the World Championships, ending his eight-year streak. A streak which was tied last year by, you guessed it, Alan Francis, who went on to win another eight consecutive World Championships from 2012 to 2019. As of the time I am recording this, Alan Francis has won an astounding 24 World Championships and is the defending world champion.

The 2020 World Championships were canceled due to COVID-19, but he was the odds-on favorite to win again this year. And if he had won, it would have been his 25th World Championship, and he would have won World Championships in five different decades. The 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, the 2010s, and the 2020s. He is currently both the youngest and oldest person to have ever won a World Championship.

I can't think of anyone who has had that level of dominance over their competition for that length of time. You might have noticed that there were a few years in there where he didn't win a world championship. He has been in at least the finals of every world championship tournament since 1995, which is an incredible 25 years in a row.

And he has finished no worse than fifth since 1988, a 32-year run. As impressive and as dominant as his performance has been in the world championships, that doesn't even really express just how much better he is than everyone else at throwing horseshoes.

If you get a ringer, which is when the horseshoe successfully is thrown around the post, over 75% of the time, you are among the elite horseshoe pitchers in the world. In fact, prior to Alan Francis, many world champions had ringer percentages in the high 70s. If you can get your ringer percentage into the 80s, you're probably in competition for a world title.

And if you can get your ringer percentage over 90, then your name is Alan Francis because no one else in history other than him has ever had a ringer percentage over 90.

He was inducted into the Horseshoe Hall of Fame at the age of 26. To put that into perspective, the youngest person ever inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was 32, Josh Klinghoffer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The youngest person ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame was Sandy Koufax at 36. Youngest in the Basketball Hall of Fame was Ed McCauley at 32, and the youngest person in the Pro Football Hall of Fame was Gail Sayers at 34.

Now, there's not a lot of money in professional horseshoe pitching. Winning the World Championship gets you a whopping $3,000. Being the greatest horseshoe pitcher of all time hasn't gotten him any endorsement deals, other than the fact that he does have a signature line of horseshoes that you can buy on Amazon.

So what does the future hold for Allen? Well, horseshoe pitching isn't really a sport where you have to retire at a young age. You can be competitive well into your 50s. So we shouldn't be too surprised if he wins several more world titles before he's done. There's a senior division for pitchers over the age of 60, which I'm sure he'll dominate once he reaches that age.

So the next time you get into a debate with one of your friends about who the most dominant athlete of all time is, just sit back, smile, and bust out Alan Francis, the greatest horseshoe pitcher in history.

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