Mark Talbott is a squash coach and former professional squash player from the United States. He is widely considered to be one of the all-time great players of hardball squash. Talbott was ranked as the World No. 1 hardball squash player for 13 years from 1983?1995. He won 70% of the tournaments he entered during that period. He was named the Player of the Year on the North American hardball squash circuit eight times, and an Olympic Athlete of the Year on three occasions. He captained the first US team to compete in the Pan American Games in 1995, earned the Sharif Khan Award for Sportsmanship in 1991, and won the United States Squash Racquets Association President's Cup in 1989. He was inducted into the USSRA Hall of Fame in 2000. Many observers consider Talbott to be the greatest American squash player of all time. Some also consider him to be the all-time greatest player of the hardball squash game ? a title to which his strongest rival is Sharif Khan, a Pakistani-born player who emigrated to Canada in the late-1960s, and who retired shortly before Talbott emerged on the scene.