With the decade drawing to a close, Yahoo! Sports examines the events and stories that defined the sporting world over the last 10 years.

It could be a championship, a dramatic performance, a controversy … perhaps even a fight with fans.

Meanwhile, which athletes dominated their sport? Which teams shockingly fell short? Which games and individual plays immediately became etched in the sports consciousness?

It’s all here.

Our crew has shared its picks for the best athlete in each sport. Now it's up to you to determine who the overall athlete of the decade is across all sports.

The top candidates are listed here. Sure, there are other deserving athletes, but some had to miss the cut. The idea here was to take one athlete each from a variety of sports and pit them against one another. This means only one athlete per league/sport.

The options included in the poll largely were derived from each individual sport's list. All of those can be found here.

So, what's your take? Who stood out as the athlete of the decade? Vote here and comment below.