One of the age- old debates within the realm of sports is, which sport has the world’s greatest athletes? Prior to attempting to answer this question, it is essential to first define the meaning of the world “athlete”.
For the purpose of this debate, I will operationally define the word “athlete” as a person who possesses extraordinary physical ability which can be utilized advantageously in sport, as well as permeate and translate successfully into the utilization of auxiliary sports.
With this definition in mind, I will now attempt to decide which sport is home to the greatest of athletes. It is also vital to note that I will only consider team sports for the purposes of this debate
Note: Sports are listed and analyzed in no particular order.
1) Baseball
Baseball players may have the greatest hand-eye coordination in the world. Batters must see and identify a pitch, and then initiate a proper swing in order to hit the pitch, all within a matter of a second.
In baseball, body mechanics are essential to success, and players usually must play the game from a very young age if they are to hope for success. Strong arms and legs are a requirement for the game, and good speed undoubtedly is to a player’s advantage, although it isn’t quite a requirement.
2) Basketball
Basketball often requires extraordinary athletic ability in order to succeed. Jumping ability is at a premium in the sport, and hand-eye coordination and body mechanics for shooting is key for success.
Strength isn’t a core requirement of the game for all positions, although it is certainly advantageous for a basketball player to be strong. Pure speed isn’t necessary for all positions either, although quickness and an explosive first step are vital qualities for a player to possess.
3) Football
Football is a sport that is based almost entirely off of athleticism and heart. Every single position in the game requires an extreme amount of athleticism in a very specific aspect.
For example, a defensive back must have blazing speed, a wide receiver must have great hands and hand eye coordination, and an offensive lineman must have great strength.
In addition, unlike almost any other sport in the world, pure athleticism can lead to success on the gridiron, even for athletes who have little previous experience playing football. For example, track stars or basketball players with great athleticism are often able to find homes in the NFL, with Antonio Gates being the most prominent example of such an athlete.
The allowance for extraneous athletic ability to permeate and translate successfully into football play creates a strong case for football in having the worlds best athletes.
4) Hockey
The athletic abilities required in hockey are very unique in that it is the only team sport that requires its participants to be effective skaters, which can be considered an athletic endeavor in and of it self. In addition, athletes must have superior hand-eye coordination and speed on skates.
Strength and power aren’t always necessary, though it is certainly a great advantage in hockey.
5) Soccer
In some ways, the athletic requirements of soccer are somewhat limited in that they only require athletic talent in the lower extremities of the body, with the exception of some utilization of the head and core.
While upper body strength can be somewhat advantageous for a soccer player, in that it allows one to play more physically when fighting for the ball, it is far from a core requirement of the game.
Speed is certainly a necessity in soccer, although its utilization in soccer is based more on endurance and longevity, as opposed to the quick and powerful bursts of speed that are required in basketball and football.
Powerful legs are undoubtedly a requirement of soccer, although the overall body power of a soccer play is significant less in comparison to a typical football player.
6) Lacrosse
Lacrosse is often dubbed as the fastest game on two feet, and rightly so. Lacrosse players must be extremely fast and have extraordinarily high endurances, especially midfielders.
Body mechanics and strength are also at a premium in lacrosse, as hitting and hard shots are both quintessential in the game.
In addition, lacrosse abilities have a clear history of permeating into other sports, as many former and current lacrosse stars have stared in other sports as well. Jim Brown is the most prominent example of this, as he is considered to be one of the best players ever in the history of football as well as lacrosse.
7) Rugby
The level of athleticism required in rugby is phenomenal. First, speed and endurance are absolute requirements of the sport.
Furthermore, the hitting in rugby is as intense as any athletic activity in the world, thereby making strength a requirement not only for success on the field, but also for the player’s safety. While in football a weaker player can foreseeably contribute as a kick returner or slot receiver, the lack of pads in rugby makes every player on the field vulnerable to injury if they are not in the condition to avoid or absorb a big hit.
In addition, the flow of rugby is constant, with very few interruptions, while there also tends to be very few substitutions. For this reason, rugby players may have the best endurance in all of sports.
However, at least in the United States, the fact that other sports tend to allure many of the country’s top athletes hinders rugby’s chances for the honor of holding the world’s best athletes.
8) Cricket
Cricket, like baseball, requires great hand eye coordination and solid physical mechanics. However, the strength and speed requirements in cricket are light in comparison to other sports, and less natural athletes are far more likely to succeed in cricket than many other sports.
While the game undoubtedly requires athletic talent, it simply isn’t as high of a premium in comparison to baseball or most other team sports.
After assessing the athletic characterisitics of the aforementioned eight sports, I have come to the conclusion that football is the sport that holds the greatest athletes.
Football players have incredible speed, endurance, hand eye coordination, and strength, and are often able to succeed on their field entirely as a result of their athletic talents. While other sports, such as baseball, require more experience and familiarity with the sport to succeed, football is tailor-made to utilize to the best athletes in roles that will bring out their best physical traits.
While rugby and lacrosse proved to bring strong consideration in my mind, these two sports do not currently draw in the world’s top athletes, thereby making me feel uncomfortable about handing either one the title of having the world’s best athletes.
Basketball was given heavy consideration as well, although the lower requirements for pure strength and long distance speed deterred me from this option.
In conclusion, I believe that football is the most athletically-inclined sport in the world. So what’s your opinion? Which sport holds the greatest athletes in the world?
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2 months ago
First off this is such a pointless argument to begin with; there is really no way to objectively judge which has the greatest athletes. And the fact that you have baseball at number one is laughable; its not even top 5. Any sport in which the athletes wear pants and can go on the DL for stubbed fingers, or can be hearled as a "warrior" for pitching with a dime sized blood spot on his ankle cannot be number one. They rarely even run or break a sweat. Great hand eye coordination yes, great skill yes, athleticism NO. Baseball is most like golf; in the ways i just mentioned, and the fact that its all about consistency; its a skill game not an athletic one (yes i know there are athletic outfielders but they do not make up for the slow moving 1st baseman or beer bellied pitchers)
If anything it's boxing because it has a combination of all these sports, but like i said its impossible to prove and pointless to argue about.
from 2 months ago
I know, I did not list these sports in any particular order!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just like my last article loll. In the last paragraph, I clearly state that football is the sport that contains the best athletes, without a doubt. I appreciate the comments, but please read the whole articles lol.
And yea, boxing could very well be the sport that requires the most athleticism. I am currently training as an amateur boxer, and I realize just how much it takes. However, I decided to only consider team sports in this article, and I was thinking about writing a sequel article that considers boxing, MMA, and all the other fighting sports.
2 months ago
Hahah well my bad you need to stop putting numbers by things! haha............i thought you did a good job explaining the sports and the type of players and athleticism they display i just objected to the rankings.
As for the fighting i can understand that; although i don't think MMA is the same as boxing since the gloves mean more knockouts and less time spent fighting, as well as the submissions. Not to mention they never fight more than 5 rounds. Thats not to take away from it i just think boxing incorporates more.
from 2 months ago
Yea, i guess i should stop numbering things, although I edited a lil warning at the top of the article now so that i don't get a million people yelling at me cuz I put baseball at number 1 lol.
As far as the boxing vs. MMA question, I personally think boxing is the more athletic sport, but I think it'll make a pretty good article comparing the athletic qualities of the 2. Anyway, thanks for reading, and sorry again about the ranking confusions lol.
from 2 months ago
Haha no problem its my fault just as much for not paying attention. Ya you should definitely write something comparing those two..........in the meantime keep up the good shit.
2 months ago
Although I agree that football (american) is a very challenging and athletic sport, I hardly think that it possesses the "Greatest Athletes". Three simple reason:
1) The fact that the average front line of a team weights over 300 lb and has a 30% bodyfat.
2) Wide recievers and running backs are without a doubt exceptional athletes, but hardly the greatest, even you said that each position requires "athleticism in a very specific aspect". If you are basing it on "very specific aspects" of athleticism, then proffesional sprinters overall are vastly faster than NFL players and proffesional powerlifters/strongmen competitors are vastly more powerful and professional long/high jumpers have greater horizontal/vertical leaps. But no one would say that Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the greatest athlete because he is the fastest human in the world or that Polish strongman champion Mariusz Pudzianowski is the greatest athlete because he benchpresses 630lb and squats 800lb.
2) Tiny talent pool. The entire sports talent pool is pretty much american college kids. A bigger talent pool produces better athletes simply by sheer numbers of athletes competing for the top spot. Sports like basketball, soccer and boxing have much larger pools of talent to choose from. The world's best athletes don't go into american football for the same reason they don't go into hurling, australian football or lacrosse...simply because these sports aren't that big outside of maybe one region in the world. Some athletic freak born in Africa or Brazil or Germany or Russia or SPAAARTAAAAA!!!! is much more likely to want to become a boxer or basketball or soccer player than a american football player.
2 months ago
I have a couple problems with this article. For one, american football doesn't contain the best athletes.
You have obviously never heard someone outside of the United States talk about rugby, which I believe has the best athletes. you say that in the united states, other sports allure top athletes from it, in the rest of the world, rugby, football, cricket, baseball, basketball, hockey, and lacrosse allure all the athletes, not most, all of the athletes away from american football. Rugby players need the endurance of football players, the strength of American football players, the jumping ability of basketball players. Rugby is the worlds roughest sport producing the top athletes.
hockey is number two, strength and power are a requirement, if you don't have it, you're going to be killed, unless you possess speed and agility of that of a snake and can just make everyone miss, everytime. however, speed and agility mean squat when you are parking in front of the net, or just crashing the net, or trying to win a puck in the corner, or trying to skate passed someone along the boards, you will leave your feet and lose the battle. also, because they skate, they need incredible balance and endurance, more so than american football.
this is where i am stuck, i am thinking it's close between football and american football. footballers need upper body strength, it's not an advantage, they need it, without it they would never win balls out of the air. my coach in high school use to make us do more pushups and sit ups than you could count. also, football players require more endurance than anyone, except maybe in rugby, because at least 7 of the 10 field players have to run around for 90 minutes. and they do have to be able to make the short quick bursts as basketball players (they just happen to be longer because the field is huge)
In american football, there just aren't as many players, while the huge linemen can run really fast despite their size, how long do you think they can really run, after one play they are huffing and puffing. i'm not saying they aren't in shape, i'm just saying that they aren't better athletes than say world class footballers who can also probably jump higher and run faster and operate at top output longer. wide recievers usually possess the same amount of upper body strength as basketball players.
from 2 months ago
Believe me, i know just how much athleticism rugby takes, as I am currently playing rugby in college. However, I do have many friends who have lived overseas and followed rugby there, and both from their word as well as from research I have done on the matter, I am under the impression that many of the top teams in the world base their teams much more around exact fundamentalism and technical skill as opposed to pure athletic ability. In fact, some experts would go as far as to say that the United States could field a more athletic team than most countries can. However, European nations have the experience and rugby knowledge to play at a much higher level. So that is something to keep in mind as well.
I can't argue much with what you what you said about hockey, but i don't know if i agree with soccer as having the greatest athletes. The one thing that you have to ersrealize is that many of the same 300 pound offensive lineman in football are even faster than many soccer players, believe it or not. For example, Joe Staley from the 49ers had a 4.7 40 yard time, and was a star athlete on the track team as well.
So long story short, I do disagree with you, although you do make some good points, and I appreciate you giving your opinion. After all, thats what sports talk is all about.
about 1 month ago
"While rugby and lacrosse proved to bring strong consideration in my mind, these two sports do not currently draw in the world’s top athletes, thereby making me feel uncomfortable about handing either one the title of having the world’s best athletes."
Then your topic should read: "Open Mic: Which American Sport Has The Greatest Athletes?"
Because a country like New Zealand and South Africa has the Best athletes playing rugby.
Football is demanding and has really specialized players and positions. To me Rugby needs more endurance and all-round skills. You have to be able to Run, defend, have ball skills and make split second decisions. Rugby only has one Break @ and a couple of subs that really only come on the field in the last 20-10mins.
But this is a tricky subject, Each sport requires different skills and physical challenges.
Allround I think Rugby is the one for me.
from about 1 month ago
Well thats the thing, I believe rugby requires more skill than football, but not necessarily more athleticism. For example, a decent athlete with typical size but great knowledge of rugby and a great heart could likely exceed at a high level in rugby. In football however, in you are not extrordinarily built, tall, and run an incredibly fast 40 time, it is unlikely that you will ever see an NFL field. A great example of this is a man by the name of David Ball, who broke Jerry Rice's (the greatest player of all time) record for touchdowns in a career. However, because he wasn't overly athletic by NFL standards, he is currently playing wide reciever for a practice squad.
about 1 month ago
what the hell American football is just but a bogas game, this is because all the players are protected with pads compare this players with rugby. no protection and very intense
from about 1 month ago
I know, I know, if the question was "which athletes have the most balls", it would be rugby players hands down. I play rugby in college, and its a scary thing taking hits without any protection. However, by wearing pads, I feel football actually requires more athleticism. Believe me, running at blazing speeds with 40 pounds of equipment on your body isn't easy. It was a tough call between rugby and football, but in the end I feel football clearly possesses the most athletic players in the world.
8 days ago
American football is probably towards the bottom of the list, and this is coming from someone who has played it throughout high school as a tight End and Linebacker, along with baseball, hockey, soccer, Lacrosse and basketball growing up and most in high school as well.
IMO, from what I've experienced-from most athletic/toughest/skillful/demanding ect...
1. Hockey
2. Soccer
3. Lacrosse
4. Football
5. Baseball
6. Basketball
Rugby must be very high, but I've never played it.
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