The World’s Greatest Athlete...discuss

Scott Alexander

Short, albeit interesting snippet on Macca...

blogs.forbes.com/kurtbadenhausen/20...t-athlete/

Discuss...

jburbatt

What I think is sad about this article is that nowhere does it mention Chrissie (or any women). Really? World's greatest athlete and you can't even mention her name? Especially since it's a triathlon-focused article. Any other sport and I'd be less salty, but in a sport where she dominates in her field (more so than Macca), and also beats a major portion of the men's field? Come on.

Al Truscott

First off, I agree 100% with Jennifer - Chrissy is the world's greatest triathlete. Or at least the most jaw-droppingly amazing.

But world's greatest athlete? People come in all shapes, sizes with different skill sets. But there are some things that the "best" athletes in any sport all share, apart from the special physcial attributes they bring which mesh well with their sport (like height for a roundball player, etc.). They are willing to work harder, longer at training and skill development than others. They have a mind-boggling singular focus on being the best and winning (see Macca's comment at the end of the essay). And they strip everyting else away from their lives that doesn't contribute to ultimate success. So they may not be the best people to be around (See: Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds). Which is what makes Crhissie all the more amazing.

Paul Hough

Not worth discussing without a concrete standard on what constitutes greatness. The crossfit crowd do not even consider us triathletes to be very fit.

@ Jennifer - as great as Chrissie is, the fact remains that triathlon is a niche field, and the pro women field is downright shallow. There was an article I read this year that went into detail on this and suggested that she has merely brought the women's field up to where it should be relative to how the top womAn in other sports compare to the top mAn. As just one example, take a look at the gap between 1st and 2nd man at IMSG 2011 and the gap between 1st and 2nd woman...just no depth among the ladies. But if your metric for greatness is sheer domination of your competitors, then I vote for Ann Trason...her record and superiority against other women and men in the sport of ultra running is far more impressive.

John Stark

I read Macca's book.  He is very impressive, has won a shit load of race, groups of races, etc.  He thinks differently than any other pro that I am aware of (not that I talk with a lot of pro's at his level) and he employ's a tough mental game before and during races.  Though he could have shoretened the book cuz he talks about the mental game WAY too much.

Greatest male traithlete?  No doubt!  Proof is in the results.  

Greatest athlete ever?  Well, that's up for debate . . . What Al said.

Jim Yanoschik

In my universe, the best you can say is that he/she was the greatest __________ (fill in the sport) OF THEIR GENERATION. When Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in one year that was more home runs than the ENTIRE total for other teams. My dad played football at Notre Dame in the late 1950's. For three years they went undefeated and won 2 national championships under Frank Leahy. When they played USC, they took a train for 3 days to get to the West Coast. College football today is totally different. Plus it will continue to change and star players will appear. These kinds of discussions sell lots of beers in bars!!! Everyone will have their favorite athletes and can justify their choices with stats. My contention is that the stats only apply to that period because of so many variables like training, nutrition, injury prevention, equipment, etc make comparisons very difficult. Also I would also divide into male/female for the same reason. Men are better at some things and woman are far superior in others. So I would have renamed the article The World's Best Male Athlete. Agree on Chrissy.

IDEA-someone invent a time machine. We transport Chrissy back to when Paula Newby-Fraser was in her prime and then go toe to toe. We could transport Ali in his prime versus Joe Louis/Mike Tyson in their primes.