The Cellar - Athlete of the Decade

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- - Athlete of the Decade (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=21630)

"Athlete" and "sportsperson" are a bit different, to my way of thinking. Woods is a great golfer, no doubt, and that takes *some* physical strength and stamina, but that isn't his main thing. It's skill, strategy, and mental steadiness.
Bolt or maybe Phelps or Armstrong would be the "athlete", I would guess, but the way the list is put together suggests you're thinking in terms of different criteria.

Woods can bench 325 my friend. He is definitely an athlete. Golf requires a ridiculous amount of muscle memory, but not only that you have to modify and adjust it based on the conditions. Do you know how friggin' hard golf is? Can you drive a ball 380 yards?

Table tennis players aren't huge, neither are fencers or members of the luge team. But can everyone manipulate their ping pong shots with the greatest of skill, or sustain the necessary balance and g-force to keep the luge at optimal speed?

I didn't know about bench pressing 325 (lbs, I presume ... or 325 women?). While this kicks arse over what I could do, by "athlete" standards, it is certainly not world beating.

Me, drive a ball 380 yards? Only in a car. :p

I'm still thinking of "athlete" as more of "one who does athletics". But I know you are using a wider reading of the term. Potato, potahto.

Problem then is how the heck do you compare Schumacher (yes, I know, F1 driving is very physically demanding) to Bolt. Two hours of maintaining skill and strategy while fighting huge g-forces and dehydration, but with all the technology and team support, Vs ten seconds of running like the wind. :confused: Apples and oranges. Potatoes and tomahtoes.

The only other idea I have is much simpler. Which one of them has been paid the most for what they do? Taht is the only absolutely comparable measure that combines how good they are at what they do, how hard what they do is, how many other people are trying to best them, and how much we are impressed by what they do. But that would just be total BS, because Bill Gates is no athlete.
Go to bed now Fresh. You have an exam tomorrow.

Tiger won, according to the Y! Poll.
http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/new...v=ap&type=lgns

Quote:

Tiger Woods was selected Wednesday as Athlete of the Decade by U.S. sports editors, a result that reflects 10 years of greatness on the golf course rather than three weeks of headlines about a shocking sex scandal.

Woods received 56 of the 142 votes cast by Associated Press member newspaper editors since last month. More than half of the ballots were returned after the Nov. 27 car accident outside his Florida home that set off sensational tales of infidelity.

Wow! I've heard of 16 of them and I don't really follow sports -or so I thought!