The Highest Paid Athlete

[Code Doc]

Showing a picture of an obese John Daly doesn't prove anything. There are obese Suma wrestlers, obese football players, obese weightlifters, obese shotputters, etc. Many overweight professional athletes are surprisingly successful at the games that they play.

Babe Ruth fought a weight problem most of his career. C. C. Sabathia almost won the 2009 A.L. Cy Young award. The list goes on and on. BTW, what does any of this have to do with the OP?

My conclusion based on what has been discussed here is that Tiger Woods is an exceptional athlete, Tiger Woods is the highest paid athlete in the world (and has been for several years), and Tiger Woods needs professional psychiatric treatment. I am saddened to see what he has done to his life, ruining the image that he created for millions of fans who enjoyed watching him play.

[NeedSomeAnswers]

Hell, Jockeys are athletes

Now that i object to, The Horse is clearly the Athlete here !!

[NeedSomeAnswers]

My conclusion based on what has been discussed here is that Tiger Woods is an exceptional athlete

So is Phil Taylor then, probably the most exceptional athlete in the world. All Hail Phil Taylor !!!

[kleinma]

Now that i object to, The Horse is clearly the Athlete here !!

All the barfing (or flipping as they call it) the jockies have to do to keep their low weight is almost a sport in itself.

[Code Doc]

All the barfing (or flipping as they call it) the jockies have to do to keep their low weight is almost a sport in itself.

Collegiate and high school wrestlers often have to do the same thing to make weight. Are they athletes? I dare anyone to try wrestling for 6 to 7 minutes at the collegiate level. When through, your body will burn like it was on fire.

[BackWoodsCoder]

Showing a picture of an obese John Daly doesn't prove anything.

John recently had stomach surgery and has lost 80+ pounds. Still overweight, but definitely not obese anymore. He hasn't looked this good in years, still hasn't helped his golf game any.

The top players in golf spend as much time in the gym as they do on the range. Golf requires flexibility, muscle coordination, core strength, and focus. The full golf swing has around 200 moving parts to it all of which must be synced with body movements (all of this done in a second or two with swing speeds of 110+ MPH). On top of it all, with as much finesse and control that you need some shots require brute strength. I'd like to see some of you hit a ball 200 yards in 4-5 inch rough with a 5 iron. I'd be willing to bet 90% of you guys wouldn't even move the ball from it's resting spot, let alone stick it on a green thats 15 yards wide 2 feet from the pin

[techgnome]

You're right. Because I wouldn't be in the rough in the first place.

-tg

[BackWoodsCoder]

ok, so if you dribble your tee shot to just before the lady tees then

[EntityX]

A post that shouldn't have happened. Sometimes I'm too restless.

[techgnome]

So... you're judging MY ability based solely on yours? Hardly seems fair.

Of all the times I've golfed, I've only ever lost the ball once, and it was the only time I badly shanked it - right into some trees. I've had pretty good success keeping it on the fairway. And I can do it... it isn't a sport.

-tg

[BackWoodsCoder]

Of all the times I've golfed, I've only ever lost the ball once, and it was the only time I badly shanked it - right into some trees.

putt putt golf doesn't count. :P

[Shaggy Hiker]

A generous person might be bribed into saying that I have played golf. I can hit the shot that was described, though if it ended up on the green, it would only be because it had to land SOMEWHERE. On the plus side, we had gas powered golf carts, and knew how to turn off the governor, which was done as soon as we were out of range of the clubhouse. Therefore, if you consider NASCAR, Baha rallys, bumper cars, or golf, a sport, then we certainly did play sports those days. If the game was a good one, I rarely hit the green, as I was laughing too hard to even hit the ball. Those were great days.

[BackWoodsCoder]

some of my best days golfing resulted in some of my poorest scores. I play for two reasons, the challenge of the game and the camaraderie that comes from playing with groups of friends.

Hell, there was the summer we had the shotgun match play. Rules went like this, Match play style tourney, each team brings at least one case of beer. The team which loses a hole must shotgun a beer on the next tee box, if the hole is a draw both teams must shotgun a beer. (of course the winning team was always welcome to shotgun a beer with the losing team)

Needless to say we made it about 12 holes.

[Code Doc]

I've never seen a golfer who could play well when loaded with booze. Few sports tolerate alcohol and golf doesn't either.

That being said, people make fun of badminton also. Is badminton a sport? Play three games of badminton against an expert and you will crawl off the court, assuming you tried to win.

[BackWoodsCoder]

I've never seen a golfer who could play well when loaded with booze.

Loaded, no, buzzed, yes. Drinking a small amount of alcohol during the round can improve your game because it loosens you up a bit and helps you swing more freely. Go overboard though and you're right, say good bye to any hope of a good round.

Now hungover, on the other hand, is a different story. I've been witness to some unbelievable golf the morning after a heavy night out. A buddy of mine polished off a fifth of bourbon the night before our 9 am tee time. Went out the next day, puking his guts out on the first three holes, and shot a 68. Probably one of the greatest rounds of golf I've personally witnessed.

[NeedSomeAnswers]

Drinking a small amount of alcohol during the round can improve your game because it loosens you up a bit and helps you swing more freely

This same rule applies to both Snooker and Pool, its called the "1 Pint Rule" !!

The first pint of beer that you drink actually make you play better (admittedly in some small number of cases people just think they play better), then every subsequent Pint after this point your ability gets steadily worse until you collapse !

[Vleminckx13]

I'd say Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo of Football.

[baja_yu]

I'd say you're about 4 years late to the discussion.

[Jacob Roman]

Agreed

[Shaggy Hiker]

How does one even FIND things like this?

[Jacob Roman]

Maybe he was bored cause the current chit chat threads were boring? Maybe. Or maybe he just failed to look at the date

[Witis]

I'd say Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo of Football.

According to this source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes'...-paid_athletes
For 2012 it was
1. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Boxing United States $85 million $85 million $0
2. Manny Pacquiao Boxing Philippines $62 million $56 million $6 million
3. Tiger Woods Golf United States $59.4 million $4.4 million $55 million
Although I don't consider boxing a legitimate sport in the same way I don't consider organised crime a legitimate profession; so arguably Tiger Woods was the highest paid sportsman in 2012.

Your men were 9 and 11 respectively:
9 Cristiano Ronaldo Football Portugal $42.5 million $20.5 million $22 million
11 Lionel Messi Football Argentina $39 million $20 million $19 million

[Witis]

Perhaps they can fix the list next year by removing sports such as boxing?

[Witis]

Even worse, the IOC's Executive Committee just voted to exclude wrestling from its 26 core sports in 2020 and the core sports includes boxing! Although the exclusion is still provisional and dependent on ratification by the full IOC.

"The IOC has adopted a system where "core sports" would continue indefinitely in future Olympics, but "non-core" sports would be selected for inclusion on an Olympic game-by-game basis. Currently, wrestling is one of the 26 core sports." "On February 12, 2013, the IOC Executive Board voted to recommend that wrestling be dropped as a core sport." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestli...ummer_Olympics

"The 25 sports are: athletics, rowing, badminton, basketball,boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, weightlifting, handball, hockey, judo, aquatics, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing and volleyball." Source: http://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-exec...0-games/190772

Boxing > Wrestling???? How can they get it so wrong? My money is on some form of bribery. Surely sports administrators aren't that mentally challenged, or are they?

The Olympics without wrestling is no longer the Olympics in my view. Surely a sane committee would sacrifice boxing or taekwondo way before wrestling.

[Witis]

Getting rid of boxing is the go, for those that are more in the know.