Sports.....Its our culture and our drive to compete to be the best. We see some of the greatest athletes in the world. We see heroes like Hulk Hogan, Walter Payton, Barry Bonds, Dan Gable, Otto Arco, Frank Gotch, Babe Ruth ect. These men are the best at what they did/do and how they got there (minus the steriods from a couple of the guys on this list) is no accident and pushed themselves to levels no one can fathom. Their conditioning is without question amazing and unreal but is it the best? Lets face facts athletes in any major sport at the highest level are well trained and can do things average folks can never do. Smack a homerun 500+ Feat, run well over 10,000 yards in a career, Win a gold medal without allowing a single point in a tournament, Slam a 500 pound giant and retire undefeted as a world champion. All those men achieved those goals because in order to achieve those things they have to go through many hours of training but again are they the best conditioned? Truth is their amazing conditioning is due to their sport. The training they go through is through that sport and in it alone.
We all strive to be the best we can be and become great when it calls apon us. I feel the best conditioned athletes are not the ones that are most conditioned for their sport no. I feel the best conditioned athletes are the ones that strive to master many different endeavors. In the early 20th century some athletes in the physical culture world were not only conditioned in their respected field but were conditioned in many other areas. Example would be Otto Arco, he was a hand balancer, wrestler, gymnast, weightlifter and strongman at a bodyweight of no more then 150 pounds at 5'3. To me the greatest athletes are men and women that are the master of multiple sports. Take another example would be the great Jim Thorpe. Arguably the greatest athlete of all-time. He was a great football player, a decathlete in the olympics and if I read correctly he played some baseball. So lets count here he was an athlete in about 12 different sports he perticipated in and nearly excelled in all of them. Thats a defenition of a well conditioned athlete, being able to transfer different movements at will and be incredible at it.
All in all there really is no greatest athlete but the athletes that excel best are the ones that can transfer from sport to sport without letting up and brining 100% a good portion of the time.
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