MotoGP rider. Aside from the obvious difficulty attaining the necessary skill to do what they do, if you look at how they interact with the bike and realize that they never really sit on it, nor can they hang on with their hands as much as you'd think, the fact that they have the strength to ride one for 45 minutes under the loads they generate is somewhat hard to understand. Then, consider that the helmet buffeting for most of each lap is bad enough that they really have a hard time seeing their markers... then it rains and they can't see much of anything...

JR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqrGbiGYs6A&feature=related

+1

Ice Hockey is the union of many disciplines. Damn hard...I never quite figured out the hockey stop but nearly crippled myself trying. Never got far enough along to carry a stick and try to manage a rubber puck. F that.

Okay, how about the boys that do a little old-fashioned road racing in the Isle of Man, Ireland and other places:

Greatest show on earth

JR

I'm going with MMA, like an Anderson Silva or John Jones. Endurance, (try grappling for 10 minute rounds) strength, speed, explosiveness, coordination, the ability to apply technique without thinking and of course smarts. Some amateur grappling for your viewing pleasure.

GREEN MAN! - FIGHTING in Jiu Jitsu Tournament - YouTube

+2

Many types of outstanding athletes have been mentioned, however IMHO, the two finest athletes are the ones that either:

1/ free soloing
2/ big wave surf

Most of us will never even get a finger on a piece of granite or toe in the water to understand/appreciate what it takes to get to the top or down the face (and back to shore!)

Need to re-phrase that.
Being a top baseball player does not require more as much physical skill as being a top quarterback in the NFL, but it's just as hard to get there.
Lots of disapointments, lots of things that can go wrong, just as much competition.

I say the skill hockey players without a doubt. You have to have phenomenal conditioning, ridiculous hand eye coordination, be strong and you are doing this on skates.

I'll say hockey players as well.......although this year there is not much they are doing that impresses me!!!! (NHL level anyway!!!)
PS I'm biased here!!! First year since I was 10 yrs old I will not be playing.....I have a full set of good quality but well used goalie equipment for sale if your interested!!!!:D

The most influential athlete(s) in my mind (which means they changed the perception and direction of their sport) are Willy Mays, Gretzky, Magic and Bird, Montana, Pele, Shoemaker, Owens, Steffi Graf (Williams Sisters and Borg), Franz Klammer...and many more.

There is no one sport that requires the MOST skill. I didn't want to wrestle a single person, regardless of weight, on my HS wrestling team. I would have been delighted, however, to pitch to them.

Swimming with a water polo player is like being in the pool with an angry Dolphin. My roommate in flight school played WP for UCLA...get him out of H2O and he was pedestrian on the basketball court.

My best friend in HS was the All CIF 4A player of the year in football...the best football athlete I ever played with or against. He didn't start on my HS baseball team.

Another good friend of mine was a Steeple Chase Jockey (he is now a wheel in the US Steeple Chase Assoc.). My last semester in HS I groomed race horses in Aiken, SC. in the morning. I had a light course load and was done by 0700 in the morning. That is where I met Barry. The Breezers and Jockeys were incredible athletes, fit and brave on the top of a 1/2 ton of trouble

At the end of the winter season we had a flag football game, grooms against the riders. I must have thrown for 800 yards. At 6'4", it was like I was looking for Randy Moss in a Tokyo subway car.

My point is every sport has a skill set to be great, the most important of which is devotion to the sport and mental toughness.

Pro wrasslin... you have to be an athlete AND and actor! And be able to jump off ladders, fight in a steel cage, get whacked with a folding chair... and so on... :D


Do I really need green type for this?

With all due respect, I would have to throw in snow ski racing, any event SL,GS,SG or DH.

DH probably the craziest, you can hit speeds of 80 +mph on two skis, a simple miss and all hell breaks loose. Your legs have to be tree trunks, stomach hard as steel, eye body coordination instant, timing perfect and hitting the apex on the spot, all on a steep slope that is mostly ice.

It looks easy as you watch the professionals do it but try it sometime.

just to muddy the waters some more, there's also a huge difference between a talented individual athlete and a great team player.
The talented individual can do things by himself that are amazing but may or may not influence the outcome. Cam Newton and RG3 come to mind, they have incredible skilz but lose allot of games because it's them vs the other team.
If I had to choose i'd pick a great team player over a great individual athlete every time.

A great team player may not have the best skilz in the game but will elevate the performance of his entire team and make them all perform beyond their abilities and can most definately influence the outcome of the game as witnessed by the broncos last year, miracle comeback after miracle comeback. winning games against powerhouse teams that are favored by 24 points.
IMO We'll never see better football played in our lives than we saw last season.
Magic Johnson had that same talent, the ability to elevate the performace of his entire team instead of just himself.
He made everyone around him better and that's a lost art in most of today's sports.

Another good example would be the miami heat a couple years ago and the philly eagles last year.
the owners and GMs bought a team full of great individual athletes but they didn't live up to their hype because they were a group of great individuals and not a team.
Last year the heat finally won the big one despite not really being team players but just because their individual talents were so dominant it was hard to keep losing.

The lakers this year have lots of great individuals, we'll see how they do in the real season. So far they're 0-7 in pre-season.
It'll also answer the question if they have a real coach or not.
Last year they were still riding the zen-dude's coattails, this year the new coach but in his offense and defense and we'll have to wait and see if it works.

Yup. See Franz K. mentioned above.

That is lost on 88.5% of players.

And that is why, when you mentioned Bo as the best athlete ever, I completely agreed.

I'm home today and literally all my clients, interests, works, planning ability, etc. is jammed from Sandy, so sorry for all the posts:)

Seahawk, you got to love the 1975 season were Franz won every DH except Megeve where he lost a ski near the bottom and finished the ran on one ski, studmuffin.

The next yr the FIS ruled that if you lost a ski in a race, your race was done. Too many lawyers out there.

Sandy? whaz that????
j/k

Most skilled athlete around the clock.....Tiger Woods:)

Actually the most dangerous - downhill ski racers, surfers, motor cycle racers etc etc
Luge in the Olympics.

If you go with the argument that it's difficult to become an NFL quarterback based on going form high school through college then tennis is much more difficult. The last time that an NCAA champion tennis player broke into the top 100 on the ATP tour was in the late 90s (Andy Roddick), before that you have to go back to the 1980s. Most of the top 500 players in the world skip college tennis all together because the level of competition is just too low.

Its hard to get an idea of how fast the ball moves form watching tennis on TV. To see it in person will give you a whole new appreciation.

Great question.

Most demanding on the body is MMA and MX.

Hardest game to master, is Golf.