The Greatest Athlete Who Never Was

I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut Usain Bolt is not the fastest human on the planet. He simply holds the fastest recorded time.

Rafael Nadal, though he rules the current tennis world, would play second fiddle to the real master - were he ever to emerge.

Some say Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever. Yet there must be another basketball player even greater, hidden somewhere in the shadows.

Bestowing the titles "The Best Ever" and "Greatest of All Time" are our misguided attempts at defining the accomplishments of supreme athletes. They are misguided because they slight at least two groups of athletes: those who will appear in the distant future...and those among us now...still undiscovered.

In the case of the former, we can only wonder. As for the latter, it will be tragic if we miss finding them.

In a world containing seven billion people, does logic not tell us that our sports heroes are "merely" big fish swimming in a pond...on an island...in an ocean? For every Bolt, Nadal, and Jordan, are there not several individuals of equal (or greater) athleticism and physical ability floundering in obscurity, somewhere in this world, with untapped potential?

Really, the only thing separating these would-be athletes from a future of unlimited possibilities is identification, direction, and guidance.

Some get caught up in gangs, some in drugs. Others are innocent victims of sheer poverty. Still others are stricken with disease early in life.

Probably the most cursed of all are those whose pitiful circumstances (e.g. war, abuse, tyranny) preclude any knowledge whatsoever of a global hierarchy in sports.

With involvement in sports being a known deterrent to the seedier side of life, as well as a vehicle of positive change, shouldn't we be prioritizing programs which identify and encourage the future of sport?

And if not for the sake of sport, surely for the sake of society.

Youth fitness programs of the 1960s and 70s may not have been perfect, but they did spawn a generation of some of our finest athletes (proliferate doping in Eastern Bloc nations aside).

And the general fitness level of our youth was much higher than current standards.

Looking back, we have many inspiring examples of athletes breaking off the chains of limitation to fulfill their potential:

The great American miler Glenn Cunningham once faced amputation of his legs following a tragic fire in his youth.

The East African runners who rule the world of long distance racing arose from roots of poverty, oppression, and insignificance.

Beloved American sprinter Wilma Rudolph overcame polio and poverty to become one of the world's most decorated athletes.

What if we had no Lopez Lamong (track), Jim Abbott (baseball), or Tom Dempsey (football)? The list of famous athletes who performed at the highest level, despite adversity, goes on and on.

Still, the overwhelming majority of potentially inspiring stories falls through the cracks.

And whenever a destiny goes unclaimed, or a champion falls short of the podium, or greatness does not materialize, we all lose.

Related Sites of Interest

IYCA  http://iyca.org/

ISSA  http://www.issaonline.com/

My Athletic Revolution  http://www.myathleticrevolution.com/