I think mountain biking could do a better job glorifying the individuals who have influenced and impacted the sport. We often spend more time focusing on the technical aspects of our bikes and less on the people who have changed how we ride, set up our bikes, dress, or challenged preconceived notions of what's possible on two wheels.
Picking the greatest of all time for any sport is subject to debate. Choosing who carries this elite status can be based purely on accolades and accomplishments or on a person's influence and lasting wake on a sport.
In mountain biking's relatively short history, there have been many influential riders who have shaped the way we all ride bikes. And depending on the era or discipline, it's hard to pinpoint one person. My obsession with downhill mountain biking began in the mid-2000s, so my GOAT likely differs from riders who started riding XC in the 90s.
But I want to know who people think is the greatest of all time in mountain biking? (both male and female)
I'll go first: my GOATS are Jill Kintner and Sam Hill.
The term GOAT means different things to different people. Do you go off straight up wins? Impact to the sport as a whole, How many wins in their respective discipline only?
Pretty hard to narrow it down for me.
Sam Hill, Semenuk, Hans Rey, Danny Mac, Nino, Minaar, Tomac
Anne Caroline, Tracy Mosely, Rachel Atherton..... How do you choose!
how can someone leave out the alien, nico vouilloz in a goat-debate???!!
Haha I had a tab open trying to find the correct spelling of his surname and still fu%^*ed up! Yes, the original puzzler is on the list too!
While our sport in it's different variations without a doubt had a lot of really impressive athletes over the years, to me this isn't a difficult decision. My personal metric for this title is an athletes' dominance over their competition and that narrows it right down:
GOAT of DH racing: Aaron Gwin
GOAT of XC racing: Nino Schurter
But the "greatest of all time"-title will obviously mean a lot of different things to people.
With such metric, wasn't Nico Vouilloz much more dominant than Aaron Gwin?
Samil. Obvs.
Brandon Semenuk.
But the definition of GOAT is not the same for all of us, soooo...
There's clearly two different ways to answer the question: guts and numbers.
Choices made by feeling, preference, or guts are always going to be vague, personal, and more interesting to discuss.
An Aussie might be more inclined to say Hill over a Brit, who might root for Peaty. But they'd both be wrong based on numbers, which are exact, precise, and unfeeling.
So I think (having done absolutely no research at all) the numbers would determine the GOATs to be:
DH Male: Nico The Alien, and Winnaar.
DH Female: Anne-Caro (the undisputed, no-argument, alpha GOAT of the sport), and Rachel.
Please fill in the blanks for me on XC, which I do not follow with the same foamy-mouthed delusion. Oh wait Nino probably, right?
As far as my gut goes, I pick Gee. The sheer variety of podiums on which that dude has poured champagne is mind-blowing. DH, DS, 4X, Rampage, Hardline, UrbanDH; as an all-rounder, I don't think he can be touched. Plus he was super nice to me and a bunch of mountain bike camp kids at MSA in '08. Handing out autographs and stickers like candy. Top lad.
Minaar. Nobody has been as competitive over so many generations of mountain bikers. Gotta give a lot of credit to each guy who dominated a generation (Nico, hill, gwin, bruni/pierron). But his longevity is unmatched and at least currently he has the most wins.
think gwin could possibly give him a major run for his money if he sticks around the sport long enough. Especially if he has another championship season and wins a worlds outside of his absolute dominant period. But even then I think he’ll like be a dungey to a rc. Minaar can easily be the face of downhill for a very long time. Especially given his long relationship with the uci.
as far as women I’d give it to Rachel. Think the overall field was more competitive than Anne especially towards the end of the career and bike quality. However I feel who ever is most dominant over the next 10 years will ultimately get the title because the women’s field is so good these days.
Sam, greg, peaty, tomac; nico, anne, palmer for gravity imo. The aussie dudes were the most fun to watch(sam, kovarik, rennie). You could argue cedric for his talent in 4x and dh…
Trying to be as numerical as possible for the men, the GOAT of DH is either
Minaar: Most UCI world cup wins ever (might be beaten, Gwin is only 1 away). And, importantly longest, period of winning
Vouilloz: Most World Champs wins ever (might never be beaten, even though Bruni is still youngish).
However, the question is who is the best mountain biker, not DHer. Slope/rampage being judged sports makes them difficult to compare with racing, let it be known I am a massive Semenuk fan, but he is out of contention.
Vouilloz: Most DH World Champs, EWS win (I think only one, but many podiums), EWS-E series win. Dominant in DH, then comes out of retirement to win EWS rounds, still beating young pros in the electric circuit (obviously the field is nowhere near as stacked as DH or EWS, but I like the aspect of his longevity).
Hill: Fastest man on a bike for a number of years in DH, multiple event and series overalls. 3 times EWS champion. Arguably the only guy who was properly dominant in both of the most competitive gravity disciplines.
Graves: DH podiums, 4x dominance, EWS overall, olympic BMX silver. I think if he had just 1 DH win he could have a real shot for the title.
Going mostly by memory as finding actual numbers is a pain, sorry for any inaccuracies.
You could possibly argue for specific disciplines, but overall, I don't see how it is anyone other than John Tomac.
On top of crushing it in every Mtb dscipline, he was had success on the road AND has a BMX background.
(Background = multi-time national champion, prior to switching to mtb)
Minnaar. No questions. The length of his career is undisputable and that alone gives him the GOAT status. This is often a big factor when determining GOATs. There are a lot of influential sports persons that have had huge successes, but that came in a short time period of domination, came with only one team, on only one product/model (Vettel in the blown diffuser Red Bull), etc., while Minnaar achieved his highs on different bikes, different wheelsizes, on different styles of tracks (WC DH has gotten A LOT faster over the years), spanning a 20 year period where some of his current competitors (at the sharp end) were still in diapers when his first wins came about (and Gwin had a dominating period of... 5 to 10 years then dropped off in the last few years), etc. etc.
On the women's side we don't have an analogue if you ask me. Maybe ACC?
It's easy to argue there are 'better', more talented, more extreme, more interesting riders, but the length (and the most wins of any DH rider on the circuit) gives a lot of credence to the GOATness.
This is true. Tomac started winning DH and XC titles in the late 80's I believe, and continued in the 90's, winning XC world champs and I think 2nd in DH world champs THE SAME YEAR. He won the Kamikaze into the 2000's, so it was near the 20 year spread that Minnaar has, but the did it in both DH and XC disciplines, and I would guess more people know his name than Minnaar's. I don't see another equal in the men or women's classes for overall longevity and versatility of skills from DH to XC to dual slalom.
If Furtado hadn’t retired with Lupus so early in her career, I doubt anyone would ever have passed her world cup and national win numbers.
Her 1994-5 17 race xc win streak will never be matched. Stepping up and winning the wc and national series overall in ‘96 was even more legendary, especially when you realize she did all that while suffering from an autoimmune disease that would force her to retire at the end of that season.
In her 6 year professional mtb career she amassed more wins than the top man and second most successful woman at that time, combined.
Being world Champion in XC and DH is also pretty badass.
ACC
Olympic gold BMX background
Dan Cortese. I don't even know if he rode a MTB but it's him.
The these youngsters clearly have not heard of Anne Caro. She's the boss and the GOAT of DH. Hands down. Nino for XC is unquestionable.
Gwin might be the american GOAT for the men, but Minnaar is without a doubt the global GOAT if we are going by winning metrics. Gwin changed the sport by taking the fun party atmosphere out of it and being all about biz and training which resulted in DH getting pushed to a new level. He has to be credited with that. However, Minnaar was winning before and winning after - he progressed through some really dramatic changes in the sport and is still competitive today despite being like 60 years old at this point. Beyond Kelly Slater and surfing (which also experienced similar progressions), I can't think of anyone else who has progressed along with such dramatic changes in a sport and is still at the pointy tip of things at an older age.
John Tomac! End of conversation.
Old school DH is Nico and Anne-Caro .
But mid school DH is Greg and Rachel .
New school DH is Loic for men's and still Rachel
Then if you talk XC then its definitely Nino and Gunn-Rita .
Hard to pick best of ALL time , much easier to pick best of their time . .
Tobacco also used to compete in trials and win medals their also
Jeezus, my autocorrect really fucked up that last comment!!
Tomac used to also win medals in Trials.
Podium picture for reference
Well, for me, GOAT means not only wins, age and rankings.
The GOAT should be somehow unmatched for the most part of his career in at least 3 directions.
First - wins for the each category raced.
Second - vision and presence
Third - legacy
For me this could be only Sam Hill. Why?
First: - wins for each category:
When start wc racing, there is no juniors, and give podium times for elite rank with a crash.
World champ more then once, World cup overall winner, more then once.
EWS overall winner, more then once. Red Bull Psychosis winner.
Second: - vision and presence
One of the first that have played whit reach, front center and head angle. His custom Sunday or Six point, I believe around 2008, L size frame but with M size seat tube, slacker HA, and changed links.
Always down to earth. Very correct judgement. Party boy with a snappy sense of humor.
Defender of the real world cup tracks. Champery, Schladming, Val di sole, MSA. Not jumpy, pedaly, flat, media preferred tracks.
Goes to ride enduro just because of that (knows his place!)
I believe one of the first on the RS Blackbox program (important feedback for companies from young age).
Third: - Legacy.
Nobody on earth can corner like Hill, as well as general riding stile! Still far ahead even for modern times, bikes and posibilities
. Many have tried to copy, but... 
Maybe Bruni is coming close to his precision, but still 
Flat pedals, sorry but, may be a personal preference, i dont care really - flats for life!, but percentage wise you know the numbers in the real world for clipless. Still A lot of medals for a pin to shin
Legendary run in Champery in the mud. Val Di Sole famous 10+seconds run. 2010 MSA world championships win after huge injury.
Hafjell world championship run after huge injury.
EWS Zermat 2019, last round -> last stage battle for the ews overall whit Florian Nikolai.
Made success and progress whit every brand bikes that sponsored him.
Why not Greg Minnaar?
A bit too close to UCI 
Boring riding stile, not much historical wins.
Wins true pedaling
Still last wins are respectable for his age, especially around the new crazy good young field.
Love it or hate it, he is the guy responsible for 29-niners
Good bikes, but made full mess whit the WC DH tracks. Less turns, more straits, crazy amound of jumps
Another pros - good puzzler, always hungry for better performance.
Way too business kind of racer. Gwin like (:
Still only Minnaar comes close to goat-like, but still lack of goat-ness to be number 1.
Really tough choice between several great riders:
Men: Tomac, Nico, Sam Hill, Nino, Minnaar.
Women: Julie Furtado, Gunn-Rita Dahle, Kintner, ACC, Rachel
Some of these riders are still going…so who really knows, at this point?
Easy!
Tomac and ACC.
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🎤
💥
My gut reaction is Sam Hill. Much like many of the other folks have said, there is something about how Sam went about becoming one of the greatest gravity racers of all time, rather than the number of titles he holds, that makes him the GOAT. His riding style and approach to racing embodies the 'spirit of downhill' and what attracts every 14-year-old kid to the sport. For most kids attracted to downhill, it doesn't matter who has the best VO2 max, the most perfectly tuned bike setup, or the most consistency. What matters is speed, skill, danger, and the prospect of glory. No rider has ever embodied those traits quite like Sam Hill. He was the fastest on the gnarliest, most challenging tracks. He rode lines no one else rode. When he won, he dominated. When he spoke, his laconic confidence made you believe he knew something no one else did. He created a mystique around the sport that drew you in. His impact on the sport is evident when you listen to the Downtime Podcast, and when asked who they'd want to learn from, almost every guest says "Sam Hill". He wasn't the fittest or the most consistent, but he had a magic ability to uncork an ungodly amount of speed, put himself and his bike past the limit, and go beyond what everyone thought possible. To me, that is what makes downhill (and sport generally) beautiful; it makes us reimagine where the line between 'possible' and 'impossible' lies, and no one did that like Sam.
The only answer is Minnaar. Klaar gepraat.
Anne-Caro competed in the events that are the pinnacle of the sport. Jill at the behest of sponsors ran around to all the Crankworx novelty events and cleaned up vs weak competition. Jill’s a great athlete with amazing bike handling but whenever she went to DH or Enduro events, her results were blah. ACC is goat, Rachel is next.
Sam Hill because of his sheer impact on the sport...he was a game changer.
ACC for the same reasons.
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