6 Superstar Athletes Make Time's 100 Most Influential People List

With fall right around the corner, Time magazine recently revealed its list of the 100 most influential people of 2021. And of the 100 people who made the list, six of them are superstar athletes. But how does an athlete or a notable figure makes the list? 

"Given that no objective measure is possible when it comes to human beings, we identified three rather distinct qualities among those who shape our lives," Time's editor-at-large Michael Elliott wrote in 2004. "First there were those who came to their status by means of a very public possession of power. President George W. Bush is the pre-eminent example. Others, though they are rarely heard from in public, nonetheless have a real influence on the great events of our time."

In 2007, Time managing editor Richard Stengel wrote: "Influence is hard to measure, and what we look for is people whose ideas, whose example, whose talent, whose discoveries transform the world we live in. Influence is less about the hard power of force than the soft power of ideas and example. Yes, there are Presidents and dictators who can change the world through fiat, but we're more interested in innovators like Monty Jones, the Sierra Leone scientist who has developed a strain of rice that can save African agriculture." Here's a look at the six athletes who made the list.