Who is the World's Greatest Athlete?

[Fastbreak]

The question comes up every so often, but with recent allegations of steroids and doping, do Barry Bonds or Lance Armstrong still make the list?

[brainiac]

Re: Who is the World's Greatest Athlete?

The question comes up every so often, but with recent allegations of steroids and doping, do Barry Bonds or Lance Armstrong still make the list?

After watching the World cup, I am very impressed with the footwork and conditioning of the soccer players, but wouldn't say even one that I have seen is in the World's Greatest Athlete category.
And yes, Lance Armstrong has clearly fallen off the list.

I would consider my top 5 to be (in no particular order)
LeBron James, Justin Gatlin, Kevin Garnett, Albert Pujols, Tiger Woods.

[BuBraves55]

you must have been mistaken, tiger woods is a golf player, not an athlete

[collegehoopjunkie]

I doubt there is much concensus on this.
Safe bet would be to go with the guys who dominate their sports (Tiger Woods, Albert Pujols, LeBron, Ronoldo.) BUT
in reality the knock on those guys is that they are very, very skilled at one thing, and a top athlete might just be defined by being talented and skilled at more than one thing.
How about the guy who just won the NCAA decathlon, Jake Arnold or Tom Pappas who just won the USA Outdoor Championships decathlon?
I know these guys are not well known.

[smitty]

How about the guy who just won the NCAA decathlon, Jake Arnold or Tom Pappas who just won the USA Outdoor Championships decathlon?

I definitely wouldn't go with one of those decathlete guys. First, though they might be the best the US has, they are not even the best in the world at their own sport.
And, they are good overall athletes, but they are not all that great at any single event. If they tried to compete in any one of the 10 events alone, they would not likely finish anywhere close to the world's best in that sport.
Would you try to make the argument that a decathlalon guy is a better athlete that the fastest sprinter in the world?

[Lakeview Brave]

It all depends on what your view of an athlete is. Is it someone who runs fast, jumps high, and is strong? Is it someone who dominates in a single sport? Do you have to dominate in multiple sports. What if you are slow and cant jump but your name is Babe Ruth? Is Carl Lewis the best athlete ever? This is a very tough debate and there is no right answer.

[user1]

Agree 100% LB.
All sports require some strength and agility, but I would put my two cents on top level competetive swimming as the sport which requires the performer to use the MOST muscles over the most span of time.
Neither runners nor any other game-athletes are required to use virtually 100% of all their musculature for several minutes continuously. Even studies have demonstrated that swimmers use more calories per minute of competition that any other sport.
I place my vote on one of the world's top swimmers,

[chitownBUB]

Studies vary a bit but here is what is reported.

Sitting still burns 0.5 calories per min.
(that means a totally sedentary person burns 700-800 cal/day as their basal metabolic level, and all extra activity burn more above and beyond that.)

Light activity (walking, housework, light play) uses 2-5 calories per minute.

Medium activity (most exercise, aerobics, physical work, and many competetive sports) use 4-7.5 calories per minute.

The most vigorous activity (vigorous rock climbing, jump rope, competetive running, swimming, and biking) all burn 7-12+ calories per minute, but most of those activities do include a little bit of rest now and then. Only biking and swimming typically go on for many minutes (even long distance running is done at a comfortable pace not top speed) and those activities are generally listed as the top calorie burners at 12-15 calories per minute when done at top pace, but maybe swimming does win out because all the muscles are used.

[mike radigan]

Takeru Kobayashi

[smitty]

Takeru Kobayashi

Was anyone else a little annoyed the way ESPN covered the Nathan's hot dog eating contest? They went to the extreme to refer to it as an athletic event, and to the contestants as supreme athletes.

Sorry, but I can't accept this as an athletic event. Kobayashi is amazing, as is the tiny woman who can wolf down all the dogs, but it is just an eating contest.

[WaylonJ]

They did play this thing up but you're right that most of the guys
in that contest were fat, out of shape, and can only do one thing well, EAT.
It might be possible some of them are good athletes, but I doubt most of them are.
If Saer Sene can touch the rim with his feet on the ground, and virtually nobody else in the world can, does that make him a great athlete, too? or just an oddity?

[mike radigan]

I didn't add the obligatory smiley as I thought no one would take me seriously regarding Kobayashi.

[Fastbreak]

Re: Who is the World's Greatest Athlete?

The question comes up every so often, but with recent allegations of steroids and doping, do Barry Bonds or Lance Armstrong still make the list?

Wow, recent events really throw a monkey wrench into this discussion.

If Lance Armstrong was the Wolrd's Greatest Athlete as many claim, then does Floyd Landis automatically become the successor, since he just did what Lance did to gain that title?
Plus, does the doping charge bounce Floyd from the list?

And lastly, if Floyd is one of the world's top athletes, then are all the dozens of guys who finished within a few seconds right behind him all on the list, too? Surely they have to be within a hair's width of being just as good of athletes.

[BU fan]

Huh?

Floyd Landis was in the Tour de France the last several years, and he could never come close to beating Lance Armstrong.

And this Tour was the weakest in years, since many of the top riders were banned.

[dogsrus]

Agree 100% LB.
All sports require some strength and agility, but I would put my two cents on top level competetive swimming as the sport which requires the performer to use the MOST muscles over the most span of time.
Neither runners nor any other game-athletes are required to use virtually 100% of all their musculature for several minutes continuously. Even studies have demonstrated that swimmers use more calories per minute of competition that any other sport.
I place my vote on one of the world's top swimmers,

A study I saw years ago had soccer as the most physically demanding sport played. Motocross came in second I do believe. The problem with MOST sports is the frequent rest breaks via timeouts, stops in play, etc. Sports like Motcross, Soccer are approx. 45 minutes without a break.

While swimming is indeed demanding you'd probably need to specify the longer distance races to qualify.