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The World's Fittest Sports - What I Think
There are individual athletes from a large range of sports which would be considered extremely fit, which ever way you define fitness (see info about the world's greatest athlete). However, here we are interested in the SPORT which requires the greatest levels of fitness.
As fitness is not defined by just one component like endurance, speed or strength, the world's fittest sport would be one that requires the highest level overall on a wide range of factors.
We have come up with a list of factors of success in sports, and ranked just the fitness components of these for a range of sports to create our list of the World's Fittest Sport. In a similar process used by ESPN (Most Demanding Sports), by rating each of these factors in a whole range of sports, the profile of each sport can be compared to determine the sport ranked highest in terms of these fitness and sport psychology factors.
I have created a list of the top 10 sports which I consider be require the greatest level of overall fitness. The list was determined by rating each of the five main trainable fitness components (aerobic, strength, speed/power, flexibility and agility) out of the factors of success in sports.
My Fittest Sport - Boxing
Boxing came out on top of my list, as it did in a related list by ESPN. Some of the top 10s from each list is similar (Boxing, Ice Hockey, Tennis and American Football) though AFL was not even considered in their calculations. Although over 70 sports were considered here, there may be other sports that could score as well as these if they were included.
| Ranking | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Boxing |
| 2 | AFL |
| 3 | Field Hockey |
| 4 | Tennis |
| 5 | Ice Hockey |
| 6 | Lacrosse |
| 7 | Team Handball |
| 8 | Track and Field: Pole Vault |
| 9 | Rugby Union |
| 10 | American Football |
Comments
- Decathlon needs to be in the top 5. American football should be broken down by position - TE and WR would be in top 5. (from Clay Parker, May 2012)
- I am surprised not to see distance cycling - Tour de France athletes at or near top of that list. Similarly with triathletes. (from Angela, May 2011)
- SWIMMING SHOULD BE "CO- #1!!!"(from CMM, May 2011)
- Cycling !!! should be number one! (Apr 2011)
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Related Pages
- POLL: What do you think is the world's fittest sport?
- What you think is the fittest sport - ratings by visitors
- What is the Fittest Sport? - the discussion
- See the ESPN Most Demanding Sports List.
- the complete lists of factors of success sports rankings.
