AP 2009 Athlete of the Year
http://www.thestar.com/sports/autor...f-the-year
"So to anyone who wants to go head-to-head with me in athletic ability, let's go. I talked a lot with Jason Sehorn about this, and I don't know how exactly you measure athletic ability, but I know my (eight-kilometre) run time will destroy most NFL players. As Johnson boasted of his personal best – 34 minutes 55 seconds – his wife, Chandra, yelled "Overachiever!" in the background."
I might be talking outta my ass, but this puts his VDOT at about 46.
0
Comments
He gets a 10 for talking smack and an 11 out of 10 for driving, but a 5 out of ten for boasting about that run time.
Does that mean he isn't an ambi-turner?
This brings up the age-old and very good question: what is "athletic" how is it defined and measured and who is the best?
My personal opinion is that the Crossfit guys have a very good definition of fitness. To them, fitness encompasses many pathways like speed, flexibility, strength, endurance, quickness, explosiveness etc. They have a list of 10 qualities that define "fit". An Olympic Decathlete is basically the model, not the fastest 800m times, nor the fastest 5k times, but their times across many spectrums of distance are very very good. Same thing with long jump, hurdles javelin & high jumpl. Nowhere close to Gold Medal (for those who specialize) but way above the level of most of us here in Da Haus.
I don't believe that Triathletes are the most athletic or fit population. We specialize to a large degree in endurance, but lack a lot of speed, flexibility and strength. Put most of your Kona AG champs in a pushup/pullup contest against the best Crossfitters and I think it would be no contest. That's not to take away from any one "specialty" athlete, whether it's Lance on the bike, Haille in the marathon or Phelps swimming, they are all incredible. It's just that I believe that the more you specialize in any one discipline, the less well rounded ie athleticically fit you are.
And I'm not sure how driving a race car makes one an athlete at all. A great achievement to win the Sprint Cup 4x in a row, but it's very much of a team effort (mechanics, pit crews etc). What athletic ability does JJ have that makes him the Athlete of the Year? I'm pretty lousy runner but even I can beat a 34:55 5 mile run time...don't think I qualify for AOY!
Nor does that time beat "most NFL players". Give any WR out there 6 weeks to build up a long run, and they'd trash it.
I'm reminded of the AMP Energy commercial from a few years ago where DE Jr. keeps getting run into by a gorilla. It said that a race car driver experiences 800 pounds of force in every turn. No question there's a strength and endurance element to that, but it's not the deciding characteristic, the engine, tires, pit crew, etc all play a role, as does race tactics (when to pass, how, etc).
Basically, I agree that JJ is athletic, but athlete of the year seems like a joke. Will we call a poker player an athlete just because they televise it on ESPN?
Mike
Having grown up in Daytona, this topic comes up on talk radio every year at Daytona 500 time. I was lucky enough to drive 8 laps around Daytona last year for my 40th birthday. I now know firsthand just how incredible those drivers are. It's wicked hot, loud, cramped, bounces all over the place (at 160mph+
) and I couldn't imagine turning left for 500 miles. But athletic? We'd have to give Athlete of the Year nominations to astronauts, those guys on Deadliest Catch, and maybe folks going over Niagara Falls in barrels.
I'm now getting a chance to fly the Navy's newest pilot trainer the T-6B. We are allowed to pull up to 7.0 G's in this airframe. We can cruise around at 250 knots (about 270 mph). We fly 2-3 flights per day of 1.5-1.7 hrs per flight. That's about 3 hours of flight time a day (contrasted to JJ's 3-4 hrs of race driving time per week). Not to say he's not athletic, again, just needs to get his head into the real world!
Kudos to him for talking smack though. I like it.