Who Was the Greatest Athlete?

There is a lot to be said for a sport that isn’t biased toward size

The superstars in the World Cup Final are Argentina’s Lionel Messi (mostly Italian) at 5’7″ and 148 pounds and France’s Kylian Mbape (half West African and half North African) at 5’10’ and 161 pounds.

In contrast, the NFL’s Patrick Mahomes is 6’2″ and 225, MLB’s Shohei Ohtani is 6’4″ and 210 and Aaron Judge is 6’8″ and 282, NHL’s MVP Auston Matthews 6’3″ and 205, and NBA’s MVP Nikola Jokic is 6’11” and 284.

There is a lot to be said for a sport that isn’t biased toward size. Messi strikes me as just about the greatest sports cognitive genius ever. Among American sports contenders, there’s Tom Brady in American football, Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez at American baseball pitching, Larry Bird in basketball, and Bobby Orr in hockey.

[Comment at Unz]

Originally published in The Unz Review on December 17, 2022.