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davidcyclebackAmongst cyclists, the 1960s-70s Belgian Eddy Merckx is generally considered to be the greatest.
As an example of his talent, in the Tour de France there are three main jerseys. Yellow (overall winner), pink (best mountain climber) and green (best sprinter). As one would expect, good mountain climbers are almost never good sprinters and visa versa. In one Tour de France, Merckx won all three jerseys.
As far as picking the best athlete, my opinion is that one should pick a best from an area that both requires great athletic skill and attracts lots of talent. Being the top in your sport means little, if there are only three participants. Some areas where I would look are football running backs (Walter Payton and Barry Sanders would be two great picks), basketball players (Michael Jordan), old time boxers (Sugar Ray Robinson or Ali as example), Soccer (Pele), all around baseball players (Willie Mays), track sprints (A good argument is that Carl Lewis is the greatest athlete of all time) and gymnastics (who says 4'11" Olga Korbut can't be called the greatest athlete?)