Who are the Best Athletes in The World?

May 5, 2017

Who is the best athlete in the world? What are the metrics? Is the second question one must ask? CrossFit Games, Tough Mudder, the Decathlon, the Highland Games, and the list goes on for events that have their version of the best athlete. The first thing to look at is to separate all of the contests and agree on the criteria.

We start with basic categories; Speed, endurance, strength, power, and hand-eye coordination. Then you might want to add flexibility, stamina, balance, quickness, and skill.

Let's start with speed. Fairly simple? Who runs the fastest? The 100-meter dash gives us a clear winner. Unfortunately, those are track stars that perform that race all year. Let's say you put all of the candidates on a starting line without those starting blocks, and they race 200 meters or 150 meters. I think that gives all of the non-track athletes a chance.

Endurance is a solid test for how well conditioned an athlete is. I think a 1600 or one mile test is too short. A 5k race is just short and long enough to see how well a runner can pace themselves. If you start too quickly, you will crash and burn before you get to the last kick of the race.

Strength is wide open because it can be measured in many ways. Most think that weightlifting is pretty evident as the test that can be accurately measured. If you have ever seen the World's Strongest Man competition, you know that they have a good cross-section of events that display strength. I always thought that athletes pulling trucks and heavy objects showed how much lower body and core strength one person could muster.

 Another strength test I see that blows me away is the gymnast that fully extends their arms in midair using the rings. That's some crazy strength that also requires balance, endurance, and mental toughness.

Power is the combination of speed and strength. In the decathlon, this appears in the discus throw and shot put. Any event that combines the ability to generate a burst of energy at the same time while moving heavy objects is a good barometer of power. Football defensive linemen are measured on power. They use their speed, power, and technique to blast past the offensive lineman to force their will against the opponent.

Elite athletes can have great speed, power, and endurance, but their hand eye coordination can separate the good from the average. What is hand eye coordination?  The definition says it is the coordinated control of eye movement with hand movement and the processing of visual input to guide reaching and grasping, along with the use of proprioception of the hands to show the eyes. In short, athletes with excellent eyesight have an advantage in having better eye-hand coordination. If you mix that with power and strength, then you have an advanced package of skills. The decathlon comes close to combining all attributes, but it would need some fine-tuning to find the best athlete.