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Determining the Fittest Sport

Some of the fittest athletes are said to come from the sports of gymnastics, tennis, cross-country skiing, surf lifesaving, triathlon, basketball, ice-hockey, handball, cycling, boxing, squash, soccer and other football codes, though you could go on and on. That does not stop us from giving these results of comparisons between sports and discussing and confusing the issue even more! The sections below describe the rationale in labelling the sports of boxing, skiing, squash and tennis as the fittest, and as you can see no one can agree. I have also described the attributes of many of these sports which can help in ranking them in terms of fitness. See also about the Fittest Athletes, who may not necessarily come from the fittest sports.

Boxing tops the ESPN List

ESPN decided to determine which sport is the most demanding. First it identified ten skills that go into athleticism, then asked a group of experts to assign a number from 1 to 10 to each of these skills (see more details and the ESPN full list). This analysis was applied to 60 sports, and the sport of stopwatch Boxing was determined to be the most demanding. Here is their list of the top ten most demanding sports:

Boxing
Ice Hockey
Football (Gridiron)
Basketball
Wrestling
Martial Arts
Tennis
Gymnastics
Baseball
Soccer

Skiing wins the Canadian Experiment

In October 2003 a large group of more than 1000 amateur provincial Canadian athletes competed in a series of fitness tests at the Toronto Sky Dome. They aged between the ages of 6 and 19, representing 16 sports (Alpine Skiing, Archery, Basketball, Bowling, Boxing, Cycling, Fencing, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, OFSAA School Sports, Rowing, Snowboarding, Swimming, Synchronized Swimming, Tennis and Track and Field). The aim of the day was to crown the "Fittest Sport in Ontario," while also promoting physical fitness for Canadian youth. The athletes completed 13 tests to determine their overall fitness level, and the winner of the title "Fittest Sport in Ontario" at the end of the day was Alpine Skiing. This was no fluke - they won the award the following year too. In the table below are some of the tests that were used to determine the fittest sport! As the tests cover the full range of fitness components, the competition was aimed at finding the sport that had the best overall fitness. Individual athletes and sports may stand out in specific tests, but they needed to be good at most of them. There is no doubt that skiing is a very demanding sport. I can imagine that they performed very well on tests of upper body strength, power, agility, lactic and strength endurance.

Fitness Component	Test
Speed	40m sprint
Strength Endurance	60 sec box jump
Upper body strength	push up, chin up or pull up
Power	Standing long jump, opto-jump
Agility	t-test
Flexibility	stand & reach
Aerobic Endurance	beep test
Lactic	400m run

Forbes thinks Squash

According to Forbes Magazine, squash is the healthiest sport an individual can undertake. Forbes consulted with fitness experts and asked them to score a selection of sports in four areas - cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility, and also incorporated scoring on calories burned and injury risk. The winner was the sport of squash - out of a possible five points, squash scored 4.5 for cardiorespiratory endurance, 3 for muscular strength, 5 for muscular endurance, 3 for flexibility, 5 for calories burned in 30 minutes, and 2 for injury risk (total 22.5). Rowing and rock climbing tied for second with 22 points each, with swimming, cross country skiing and basketball not far behind.

Pete Sampras Says Tennis

In a statement made in 2009 sure to spark debate among the sporting stars and followers, Tennis ace Pete Sampras claimed that Tennis players are the best athletes in the whole wide world. It is all personal opinion of course.

"I think tennis players are the best athletes, in my opinion. I'm not being biased. I know what it takes, I know hand-eye coordination. In an individual sport, you can't hide." Sampras said. He may well be biased, but with his record his opinion is worthy of respect. "People don't talk about it. I mean, in tennis, these athletes are incredible, ... what these guys do on the run ... the guys that aren't maybe playing well and they come back - they're down two sets to love and they have the resolve to come back and can go on and on".

Conclusion

When comparing sports or athletes to find the fittest, the most important thing is to first define what is fitness, before trying to measure it. It will be hard to find anyone to agree on any of the above sports being the fittest, so this debate will always continue. What sport do I think is the fittest? I don't think it has definitively been answered - I'll have to come up with the ultimate test and find some willing athletes...

Comments

I am a squash player, and I would have to say it is a 3 way tie between squash, gymnastics and waterpolo. The physical aspect in the other two appears torturous to me, and I know first hand that squash requires a mix of all different kinds of fitness if you want to be successful. (from Kyle, May 2012)
Basketball for sure! i play it and i am super fit! (from keigan, Feb 2012)

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ESPN List of most demanding sports
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