Go Wellsy, bringing it home for the Australians… his outfit was a bit weird though… no idea where the hell he would get something so odd.
And lots of people seem to have Dan Doerksen in there list. I can see how they might have him there, but I personally don’t believe he’s all that good. I can’t think of one part in U2 where even one foot comes off the pedal.
What about Julien Monney and Benjamin Guiraud (aka Yoggi) ?
The family.
Andrew
Yes, his mum made it. And what a coup! Little did they know, the “in thing” for Japanese freestylers in 2004 was costume changes. Simon out-costumechanged them all, without even realizing there would be such a precedent for it! The same act in a different year would not have gone over as strongly. Simon’s costume change, along with the sudden appearance of his long hair, was a significant part of his earning the silver medal.
wow. that’s exactly what I was going to say…
Craziest unicyclists? 
Yoggis drop was very hard to watch (cringe)
I think this is more of a popularity contest rather than true skill, so in that case Dan Heaten, kris holm, Dylan Wallinger, Jeff Groves, and Adam Ryznar got my vote.
John Foss is a high level rider who does literally everything and has for decades. He has been instrumental in bringing other unicyclists all over the world together, again for decades. He is NOT the best at any one thing but, without his influence, none of you would have a clue who IS the best at any one thing. The categories in which he excels include all of the riding catagories and all of the organizational catagories. As for the best unicyclist of all time, he gets my vote because he is an outstanding rider and is probably the most influential of all the riders I know of. He is many times president of the USA and IUF. He contributes articles to On-One-Wheel regularly. He is the default spokesperson for unicycling everywhere.
Everywhere?
Yes. Even at 52.3°,4.7°.
some people who have influenced unicycling massively in the UK
General riding and performance unis- Dave Mariner of DM unicycles, hes still riding and has been for years. Made a lot of unis over the years. Dave has been very influential in making unis a mass market product rather than a circus/street performer only item.
Muni and distance- Roger Davies, one of the Uks first Muni riders still one of the best. Also one of the first riders to compete agaist mountain bikes along with Duncan Castlin. Roger has desinged a number of unis including the first Carbon Fibre framed uni. He now runs Unicycle.com UK.
My best of list of current riders might look some thing like
Freestyle- Julian Monay , Ryan Woessner
Muni - Roger Davies , Nathan Hoover
Trails ( jumping stuff) - Paul Mathews , kris Holm , Yoggi
Distance- Frank Boach
I’m very aware that that list is all male. its also all European or north American. That reflects who I know and who I ride with. its hard trying to pick just a few names.
sarah
The best unicyclist of all time would have to be the legendary Wobbling Wally Watts who rode around the world on a huge unicycle.
Who are these people, John? The only one i know is John Drummond from uni.com. If they made your list, they must be pretty important.
I’d like to follow Harper’s reply by also saying that Constance Cotter has done tons of stuff for unicycling for decades. She practically runs artistic events at every nationals and most unicons. She’s been the president of TCUC for like 10 years and she does so much for the club. She may not be the best technically, but has helped promote unicycling and that’s why TCUC is one of the largest and best unicycle clubs in the world. Andy Cotter (her brother) has also done a lot for unicycling but not quite as much as she has. And I agree with Harper that Foss has done his share.
Trials-Kris Holm or Dan Heaton, Female?
MUni-Kris Holm, Irene Genelin
Street-Dan Heaton, Female??
Freestyle-Julian Monoe and Ryan Woassner (tie), Amy Shields and Irene Genelin (Dana Schneider back in her day. I believe she’s the only one to ever win every individual gold medal possible at a Nationals-expert freestyle, standard, racing champ, parade, and club-don’t know about hockey, basketball and group though?)
Ok - here are a few suggestions
Hockey - Takafumi for bringing it to Europe, Rolf Sander for
being the driving force behind the international hockey
scene for years now. It is difficult to pick out individual players
given that it is a team game, but Holger Summer and
Sonja Theiss will be up among the best men/women.
Basketball - again a team sport; Puerto Rico have been
on top for a while now. Semcycle are alway competative,
and these days Swiss Power are also up there. I don’t know
the individuals enough to pick out any one/two.
If by group you mean group freestyle, then Toyoda take
some beating…
Paul
Those people are giants. Though they are not famous for winning competitions (probably Tom Miller is the only one to place first in anything), they have built this sport up, or built up the people who do it. They created things that lived beyond them.
Bill Jenack created the Unicycling Society of America. But more than that, he created organized unicycling as we know it. There was no model before the USA existed. Many other large unicycle organizations, such as the JUA, were created using the USA as a model.
[Side Note: The USA is not a great model today, and needs work. We will make it better. The JUA has gone way beyond what the USA is, but in a business direction the USA was not built for. Mr. Masuda and Sugano are also giants in unicycling, as is Jack Halpern.]
Bill Jenack is my role model for promoting unicycling. But I never actually met him.
Tom Miller built and sold unicycles. He still does, but has been surpassed by other businesses who are easier to communicate with. Today you can buy a Coker. 20 years ago, if you wanted something like that, you went to Tom Miller. He created The Unicycle Factory, a place where you could find expertise on the phone, and just about any unicycle part you could think of.
John Drummond, as most of you know, picked up where Tom Miller left off, creating an Internet business to sell unicycles. But he did much more than that. He created a market for unicycles. He brought bicycle dealers together, to a place where they could order a selection of quality unicycles and not just have the same Tiawanese cheapies all the time. He developed new unicycles by combining existing components, to fill price points. He encouraged individual builders to make small production runs of great little products, which he provided the means to sell. John and Amy are turning unicycling into a much more mainstream activity.
Alan Tepper is an elementary physical education teacher (and coach) in North Bend, Washington. He started a unicycle club at his school in 1982 and it has grown ever since. He was one of the few school unicycle teachers to cross over into the large organizations and bring his group to NAUCCs and Unicons. He hosted NAUCC in 1999, and then a combined NAUCC/Unicon in 2002. He is now a USA Director.
Those bios were horribly short and lacking in detail, but they should give a slight idea of who those people are.
The best rider of all time is most likely someone who won the competition a few months ago. What if they disappear before the next Unicon? What impact will they have made? Sure they are amazing athletes each in their own discipline(s).
Dana Schneider, for example, is probably the best female technical artistic rider ever. Lots of wins in both Freestyle, Standard Skill, and Pairs. I wouldn’t worry as much about group events, in which she can have only limited influence.
As a competitor I have done well also, with possibly the most overall world championship titles of any competitor so far. If true, we’ll see how long that can hold up, like all my former speed records…
Thanks, Harper!
Julien Monney…
To virtualy not touch a unicycle for 6 months, and still win the open X at Unicon!
There is no one person who is the best, everyone is different. All unicyclists are great!
NOTE: Aside from Bill Jenack, these people are still alive!
CORRECTION: The best rider of all time is most likely NOT someone who merely won the competition a few months ago.
best overall only pls
There is no such thing.
Anymore than there is a best overall (bi)cyclist. You can’t compare a Tour de France rider with, say, a DH mountainbiker, anymore than a freestyle unicyclist with a XC MUnicyclist. Unicyling is probably still small enough a sport that people can excel in various disciplines, but there is enough specialisation already to make it very hard for people to be the best at everything.
Ken