Who Are The Fittest Athletes?

The other day my stepfather, who I adore, but who also often pronounces things as “fact,” when they actually seem to have just came out of his own imagination, said “you know those Iditarod sledders? Those are the fittest people around.”

“Really?” I answered. “I had always heard it was biathletes. You know why? Because the one truest test for fitness is recovery time. How hard can you get your heart to pump and how quickly can you get it back to its resting rate? And the people who can do that are biathletes because they cross-country ski very fast then slow down enough to shoot a target.”

In fact, according to my research, a biathlete’s heart pumps three times per second when they begin to shoot, so their bodies are both working hard (because so much blood is coursing around them so forcefully) and remaining calm enough to keep their rifles still to shoot a faraway target. Quite a fitness feat.

Fitness, let’s remember, is not a measure of your ability at one sport. Of course, you can be a great athlete but that doesn’t mean you are fit compared to other athletes. This is what we are seeing as Lance Armstrong takes on marathons. But what if he were do a triathlon? Can Lance Armstrong swim? Not sure. What would happen if we challenged him even further? Can Armstrong dance? Could he do ballet?

Even aside from the actual skill of leaps, plies, and other complicated steps, could Lance Armstrong make it through a two-hour performance of a ballet using only his own body weight, flexibility, and strength? He probably couldn’t. But, of course, at the same time, Svetlana Zhakarova of the St. Petersburg Ballet probably doesn’t have the type of leg strength Armstrong has (meaning she couldn’t push herself up a hill on a bike), although as you can see from this video, she’s unbelievably strong on just one leg. It’s just not the same type of strength and the two cannot be interchanged.

These differences in fitness, particularly in strength and flexibility, since cardio capacity can often be relied upon in multiple sports (if your heart is strong enough to dance, it is probably strong enough to bike), is why it has always been fun to watch Superstars or Dancing with the Stars, because we see how accomplished athletes struggle at activities other than the ones for which they train.

The Superstars, a TV show I fondly remember from my childhood (and which I hear is coming back this summer) first came on TV in 1973. It featured all sorts of athletes, from Joe Frazier, the boxer, to Jean-Claude Killy, the French skier, to Bob Seagren, an Olympic pole vault gold medalist (who won), taking on different sports, such as weightlifting, swimming, running, and the infamous obstacle course (which, unlike the other sports, really tests the various elements of fitness).

Most of the athletes were mediocre to good at the various events, although Frazier nearly drowned during the 50-meter swimming race since he didn’t know how to swim. “How was I to know I couldn’t unless I tried it?” Frazier said afterward.

It’s notable that the winning athletes were either Olympic non-group sport competitors, such as the decathlon, or football players (including O.J. Simpson).

Unfortunately, when asked “who are the fittest athletes discussion,” sports writers and fitness enthusiasts rarely consider women, even the best in the history of their sport, such as Nadia Comenci’s (who scored five perfect 10s at the 1972 Olympics) or Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the track star, who Sports Illustrated for Women (a now-defunct magazine) once called the Greatest Female Athlete. (To see the whole list, go to http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/1/).

But, of course, people also never look to the arts, such as dancers, in figuring out who is fit, even though many male athletes have used ballet to improve their overall fitness level. In 1998 Herschel Walker, previously of the National Football League, danced on stage with the Fort Worth Ballet.

Back in non-televised, non-celebrity life, most people would agree that the fittest non-athletes are firemen or Navy Seals, who train to be strong in every way and who now often rely on previously-considered “female” activities, such as yoga and Pilates, to be truly “fit.” In the same way that ballerinas lift weights or take aerobics.

In other words, men and women now realize that in order to be truly fit, it is not enough to be good at a sport, you have to reach a high-level of ability in a variety of categories: muscular strength (how much can you lift), muscular endurance (how long you can lift a weight), flexibility (how well your body moves in a variety of planes), and cardio endurance (can your heart rate keep up with your desire to do a certain activity, such as climb a long flight of stairs or hike?). I would add that people are now, rightly, concerned about balance, too.

If you, like me, aren’t trying to excel at a sport, but instead want to be very fit in all ways, what can you do? For me, the best solution is to find exercise DVDs, gym classes, and activities that include the words “functional fitness,” “boot camp,” or “playground.” The first two might be self-explanatory. Functional fitness and boot camp are code words for a combination of exercises that work your body in all ways. My favorites are Cathe Friedrich’s, Drill Max and Boot Camp.

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Why do I mention the playground? Because if you go the playground with a kid (school-age, not younger) and simply ask him to play Follow the Leader (he’s the leader) you’ll end up with a workout that will include pull-ups, sliding, running, jumping, squatting, and other heart-pounding, flexibility-challenging, and strength-improving movements. Afterward, if you want to give a boost to your by-now probably weakened ego, you can challenge him to more grown-up moves you can do on a jungle gym, such as push-ups and sit-ups.

Because I really think the fittest people on earth aren’t athletes at all, but active kids.