Who is the World's Greatest Athlete?

[Future Walk-On]

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

i know you are joking!







right?

[tornado]

Back when ABC used to do the "Superstars" competition...they had athletes from all sports competing in various events and scoring points to see who was the best overall athlete.

Many of the track, decathalon, baseball, football, and basketball players did very well...but routinely the guys who were race car drivers, skiers, skaters, hockey players, and other minor sports did a whole lot worse...

Here's the Wikipedia page about that Superstars competition which was long enough ago that steroids probably did not play into the results or contaminate the competition.

as you can see, the winners almost every single year were either football players or some form of track athletes.
I know it won't convince everyone, but I think it proves that if drugs and steroids are removed from the equation, then the guys who did football & track were probably the best athletes and trained the hardest and most intensely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstars

Even (as you can read) the British and European versions of Superstars had the same result with either rugby or track athletes dominating

EVEN OJ Simpson won one season!!!

[Braveman]

I cast my vote for Caleb Hainie!

[Future Walk-On]

this is like asking who is the "nicest" person ever.....

[mtxe79]

Max

[tornado]

Here's a bit more evidence....

despite being 48 years old...it is being reported that Michael Jordan can still play full-court scrimmages with the Charlotte Bobcats, and regularly

"kicks their butts"...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6109391

[tornado]

I was watching some of the "extreme" sports and skateboarding yesterday and I heard a comment that just puzzled me to no end...

one of the announcers droned about how these skateboarders were among the most highly trained and well conditioned athletes in the world...and suggested that they rivalled Lance Armstrong or Michael Jordan in this category.

I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion....but here's my take...
Many of the skateboarders are, of course, good at what they do, but I highly doubt they can do anything else whatsoever athletic -- as most don't look that athletic, they're short, scrawny at times, chubby at other times, and outside of a few good tricks on a skateboard most appear to have absolutely NO jumping ability, speed, etc..

Lots of my own kids' friends are pretty good skateboarders, yet invariably they are terrible athletes, kinda nerdy, and really can't do much more than their skateboarding.

Here's my take...
in every sport it's debatable who was even the best athlete in that sport..
if you ask who was the best baseball player or football player -- you get a wide range of legitimate answers...

BUT -- if you ask who was the best basketball player -- about 90% will agree it was Michael Jordan. He dominated his own sports as no other athlete has ever really dominated their own sport.
PLUS -- he was moderately good -- good enough to play with professions-- in two other sports (baseball and golf).
I think when all is considered, MJ was the best athlete in any sport ever..

If steroids can make a good athlete into the "Best Athlete in the World" - then is there any doubt that what the Lance Armstong thing does -
is to essentially tell every athlete, college jock, or even kid who wants to make it big - to go out and dope - just be careful enough..
don't do it right in front of other people, don't ask someone else to give you the shots, don't share your story with others, etc...
Obviously Lance Armstrong is discredited - as is Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, etc... but...
there are gobs of players who have made enormous sums of $, and gotten famous - but who have not been caught or who
have not fallen under suspicion because they either kept their mouths shut or they just didn't rise high enough in their sport
to fall under suspicion....but if you look at even the most mediocre of baseball or football players - then you see the evidence of using
bodybuilding steroids....they all have muscles that they didn't have in college or in the minors...

http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-sports-media-watch/files/2013/01/sammy-sosa-before-after_steroids.jpg

In the end - Lance is the biggest advertisement and promotion that will drive young athletes to find ways to use steroids because
without a doubt the use of them have made him a wealthy, famous person whose life has been envied..

[Da Coach]

The big lesson is that if you are going to use PEDs, don't get greedy and win too much, or set too many records. When you start breaking virtually unbreakable records, or doing incredible career-best performances after age 40, it raises too many questions, and other athletes get jealous (including other cheaters). The next generation of cheaters will have to be satisfied with just being pretty good, having long careers, and makings tons of money.


BTW- as disgraced as Lance Armstrong is now, is there any doubt that all the top cyclists he was competing with and against were also doping? So it's possible that Lance indeed was a superior athlete, since though he was doping, so was everyone else he was competing with.

[tornado]

but then - what about the guy who won FIVE Tours de France right before Lance did and right after Greg LeMond retired?

One of Lance Armstrong's most powerful statements to Oprah was that he never viewed taking steroids as cheating...
only that it allowed him to "level the playing field"...meaning that he had to do it to compete with the other guys like Indurain
who were apparently ALL doing it!


Miguel Indurain

[lake Camelot]

LA

I haven't listened to anything he said. But I think the big lesson would be-

Don't be a jackass and sue people even though you are the one lying.

I think every cyclist is cheating. I would have forgiven that. It was the lawsuits and attacks and denials forever that I won't forget. Hope he goes broke.

Payback.

[Da Coach]

... Hope he goes broke.

Payback.

Don't count on it. Reportedly, there are already book and movie deals in the works, in addition to all the millions he has already pocketed and stashed away. Somehow I suspect he'll continue to profit from his notoriety.

[tornado]

yeah - the big lesson here is that many if not most of the top athletes in each sport ARE doping and are very successful as a result -
so kids probably wouldn't have a problem trying it if it helps improve their chances of getting one of those $10 mil contracts..
If a kid is willing to risk a felony for a couple pills and a cheap thrill then you don't think they'd risk the embarrassment of having to confess to Oprah in order to become rich & famous
(and own yachts, travel the world, and have great looking girlfriends...)

I get a laugh when some incredibly famous, successful, and rich athlete gets to the Gold Medal podium and says to the youngsters looking up -
"hey - I took steroids, but look what it's done to me and you youngsters shouldn't do it!"

http://www.amazon.com/Marion-Jones-Life-Illustrated-Autobiography/dp/0446524557

I recall a few of the most suspicious cases....but one (actually two) stand out (of course ARod too)

at the peak of the "steroid era" (around 2000) - especially with a couple west coast labs producing the undetectable steroids like Bonds was using..and league testing was not yet implemented..
two light hitting guys - Bret Boone & his brother Aaron Boone (who had tons of connections because their father & grandfather had long MLB careers)
- both suddently bulked up almost overnight and went from light-weight hitters with 6, 8 or a dozen homers per year..
..to suddenly being big time power hitters - clubbing 35-40 homers per year and raising suspicion - then after 3-4 seasons up near the league leaders in HR & RBI....
the league testing kicked in and - BINGO - as soon as they had to submit to steroid testing - both of them instantly dropped weight and became singles hitters again..
barely exceeding single digits on homers in any season for the rest of their careers.......but neither was ever caught and both got huge contracts because of their production..

http://goodmenproject.com/sports-2/all-steroids-team-bret-boone/

http://www.complex.com/sports/2012/07/the-25-best-alleged-and-confirmed-steroid-users-in-baseball-history/steroids-25