Sports: Which has the best athletes?

General Discussion
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I played soccer for 10 years in high school and adult leagues.

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I played soccer for 10 years in high school and adult leagues.
Then you must appreciate the *beautiful game of soccer*. Each sport has its own attractiveness and necessary worldclass skill sets, but IMO, soccer (if played well) is like a symphony of all those skills.
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I played soccer for 10 years in high school and adult leagues.
Then you must appreciate the *beautiful game of soccer*. Each sport has its own attractiveness and necessary worldclass skill sets, but IMO, soccer (if played well) is like a symphony of all those skills. Yes, I do. When I was younger I had no problem kicking a soccer ball 60 yards accurately with either foot. I was a better than average high school player. But Pele, he was an artist. Saw him in Dallas and he made the most incredible pass i have seen. H took a pass, dribbled once on the run and delivered a cross-field pass with backspin that dropped the ball directly in front of his teammate who didn't have to break stride. I made pass like the once, and it was pure luck. I was trying to clear the ball out of our end of the field and delivered a perfect pass two-thirds of the way upfield to one of our wings. Did it left footed too. I was just glad I didn't whiff.
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Here is an example of someone using a little known secondary skill set.

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Here is an example of someone using a little known secondary skill set. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaAtqGj-MrE
His primary skill set being a pretend philanthropist who is actually a most evil and villainous international arms dealer in the new mini-series "The Night Manager".
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I personally love cricket whatever it may be playing or watching. There are a hell of Athletes who are there in cricket if I start mentioning names this won’t be an end. Suresh Raina is one of the best Athlete. His never give up attitude mainly in fielding will raise your eyebrows. One of the best game changers in the modern era. Also Football, Soccer there may be a number of Athletes will get to know!

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#1- Hockey

#2/3- Soccer/Rugby

#4 to last- All the rest

In hockey, those guys don’t just glide around. I challenge ANYONE to take a shift of professional hockey (or even high level men’s beer-league) and survive the exertion they need to sustain. Your legs would be absolutely destroyed beyond anything you’ve experienced, unless you’re very seriously into CrossFit or regularly run races up mountain sides.

Yes, there is running in other sports, but, other than soccer or rugby, in those sports it’s not necessarily ‘all-out’ like in hockey. And in hockey they do it repeatedly throughout the game, 80+ games a season, plus lots of practices.

Only soccer and rugby are in the same category as hockey, and the high level of physicality of hockey, in my opinion, gives hockey players the edge over them in the overall competition.

Obviously there are amazing athletes in all professional sports, and none of the competitors would be seriously out of place. Football players are often crazy muscular and big, baseball and basketball players are also very physically impressive, and all the other sports require levels of physical abilities us lay people can’t even imagine.

I don’t think it would be a cake-walk for hockey players, but I’ve played hockey for years, and I can honestly say that I can’t comprehend how tough and athletic the pros are. So I caution anyone who doesn’t give hockey players the respect they’re due, be prepared to lose.

Does CrossFit even count in this competition? Because if it does, then I’d pick them. But since it’s kinda on the boundary of a sport, I didn’t include it in my very non-rigorous calculations.

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I’d say Basketball and Football players would dominate. They have the broadest skill set that would be helpful in the other sports. Rugby players would probably do well.

Hockey players would have have trouble adapting off the ice and without their equipment.

Soccer players lack the hand-eye coordination and explosive strength/speed that other sports require.

Baseball players have excellent hand-eye coordination, decent strength and speed but probably lack everything else. I guess Cricket players are similar but more slow and boring.

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wow, this is an old thread, awakening from the dead.

In the scenario of rules that I laid out, I still think that the (American style) football players would have the advantage, because one could choose the team for any given alternate sport from among the players from a breadth of different body styles, and physical talents. (e.g., small and fast, tall and fast, big and strong, etc. Only (American) football has the range of talents to choose from.)