01 July 2008

WSJ's top 10 athletes in the world = WTF?

Wall Street Journal did a report over the weekend on the Top 10 Athletes in the world. One (1) hockey player made the top 10. You guess who.

How they decided: They gave the performance stats and achievement records of 79 male athletes to a panel of 5 judges, and asked them to rank the competitors based on six criteria: speed; vision and reflex; stamina and recovery; coordination and flexibility; power, strength and size; and success and competitiveness. The final category examined success—records held and victories—as well as competitiveness, based on the sport's popularity. Soccer, for example, the world's most popular sport, was judged the most competitive (..... wtf?). The panel gave a total score for each athlete in the first round. Sixty athletes were eliminated in the second round, either because of low scores or because they were not first in their field. Our panelists then made the final ranking. Yale statistician John Emerson helped normalize the scores so no single panelist could exert undue influence.

The top 10:
1. Roman Sebrle - decathlon
2. LeBron James - basketball
3. Floyd Mayweather - boxing
4. LaDainian Tomlinson - football
5. Roger Federer - tennis
6. Sidney Crosby - hockey
7. Liu Xiang - 110m hurdles
8. Jeremy Wariner - 400m sprint
9. Ronaldo de Assis Moreira - futbol (soccer)
10. Alex Rodriguez - baseball

OK did these people ever WATCH a hockey game? I mean, no disrespect to anyone on the list, but LeBron? Federer? Some dudes who run? A baseball player? Come on now. Give me a freakin' break. Anyway, you can read more at the article. I dunno if they went beyond 10.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'd be quite happy to give credit to the decathalon runner. Those things are pretty darn amazing, considering the distance and variation in different activities you have to go through to complete it.

However, to have the next in line being basketball is comical. Basketball takes skill, but not nearly as much athleticism as hockey, boxing, or a decathalon. Second overall is a joke.