Several years ago, a panel of experts sought to answer the controversial question of which sport is the most difficult. The experts used 10 categories to try and figure out which sport requires the most athleticism. The panel included sports scientists on the Olympic Committee, researchers who study human muscle and movement, an athlete who competed successfully at both baseball and football (Brian Jordan), and sports journalists who spend their lives documenting the rise and fall of the best athletes.
To try to objectively rank the 60 sports in contention, the panelists broke each sport down to 10 separate components, as follows:
| ENDURANCE: The ability to continue to perform a skill or action for an extended period of time. Example: cyclists or distance runners
STRENGTH: The ability to produce force (force=mass*acceleration). Example: NFL defensive linemen or weight-lifters POWER: The ability to produce strength in the shortest possible time. Example: baseball sluggers SPEED: The ability to move your body quickly. Example: Sprinters, speed skaters, or NFL wide receivers AGILITY: The ability to change direction quickly. Example: Baseball shortstops or basketball players FLEXIBILITY: The ability to stretch the joints across a large range of motion. Example: Gymnasts, divers, or figure skaters NERVE: The ability to overcome fear and control your body’s stress response. Example: boxers and race car drivers. DURABILITY: The ability to withstand physical punishment over an extended period. Example: Boxers or football players (especially running backs) HAND-EYE COORDINATION: The ability to react quickly to sensory perception. Example: A baseball player reacting to a knuckleball ANALYTIC APTITUDE: The ability to evaluate, reevaluated, and react appropriately to strategic situations. Example: Russell Wilson breaking down the defense before hiking the ball. |
Using the 10 categories, the panelists gave each sport a score under each category, with a maximum of 10 points per category. Then, the points are added to a total of 100 points maximum. Note that there aren’t any sports that totaled up to 100 points, but that is the absolute maximum one sport can get.
After all was said and done, here are the results of how the panelists ranked the 60 sports according to which one takes the most athleticism to succeed. Remember, it is not which sport takes the most time to learn to play leisurely, the ranking is according to which sport takes the most athleticism to be good at.
As you can see boxing ends up being the sport which required the most athleticism. Boxing needs a great deal of endurance, strength, power, nerve (control), durability, and hand-eye coordination—it scored 7 or over in all of these categories. It also needed a fair amount of speed, agility, and analytic aptitude—scoring in the 6 range in all these categories. The only category which fell below a 6 is flexibility, which scored a 4.38. This is probably due to the fact that boxing doesn’t quite rely on the joints as much as the actual muscles itself.
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Again, here is the rank of the 60 sports according to the panel of experts, represented in text:
1. Boxing
2. Ice Hockey
3. (American) Football
4. Basketball
5. Wrestling
6. Martial Arts
7. Tennis
8. Gymnastics
9. Baseball/Softball
10. Soccer
11. Alpine Skiing
11. Water Polo
13. Rugby
14. Lacrosse
15. Steer Wrestling (Rodeo)
16. Pole Vault
17. Field Hockey
17. Speed Skating
19. Figure Skating
20. Distance Cycling
20. Volleyball
22. Racquetball/Squash
23. Surfing
24. Fencing
25. Freestyle Skiing
26. Team Handball
27. Sprint Cycling
28. Bobsledding/Luge
29. Ski Jumping
30. Badminton
31. Nordic Skiing
32. Auto Racing
33. High Jump (Track & Field)
34. Long/Triple Jumps (Track & Field)
35. Diving
36. Distance Swimming
37. Skateboarding
38. Sprinting (Track & Field)
39. Rowing
40. Calf Roping (Rodeo)
40. Distance Running (Track & Field)
42. Bull/Bareback/Bronc Riding (Rodeo)
43. Middle Distance Running (Track & Field)
44. Weight-Lifting
45. Sprint Swimming
46. Water Skiing
47. Table Tennis
48. Weights (Track * Field)
49. Canoe/Kayaking
50. Horse Racing
51. Golf
52. Cheerleading
53. Roller Skating
54. Equestrian
55. Archery
56. Curling
57. Bowling
58. Shooting
59. Billiards
60. Fishing
So why are the sports ranked the way they are? Well here is a wonderful display of the skills required to play each sport and how much of that each skill is required:
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I am actually surprised by how high and low some of these sports ranked. For instance, I thought rugby should have ranked higher. Also, I was surprised to see ice hockey ranked above football. Additionally, martial arts is a very broad term. Some martial arts are extremely demanding and require a lot of athleticism to compete whereas some other martial arts do not require as much.
So what do you think of the rankings? Do you largely agree with it or largely disagree with it? Do you agree that boxing should have been ranked first? Let us know below.
If you want to try your hands at the toughest sport on the list, go join a boxing gym and grab yourself some Everlast boxing gloves. They are great for people who are just starting out with boxing.
Video Version
If you would like to watch the video version, which is about 1 minute and 15 seconds, then you can watch it below:
Netflix enthusiast, horrible speller, jiujitsu hobbyist, weekend drinker, and occasional poker player. Favorite quote is “[o]ut of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
