Jackie Robinson Michael Jordan may be the most worshiped athlete of the 20th century, but he is not the greatest. Neither is Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods, or even Muhammad Ali. Instead, the greatest athlete of the century is a man who dealt with pressure infinitely greater than any other athlete before or since, and whose handling of that pressure made possible the careers of Jordan, Woods, Ali and many more. The greatest athlete of the 20th century is Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was the first baseball player to break Major League Baseball's color barrier that segregated major league baseball for more than 50 years. On October 23, 1945,