The 50 Fittest Men (Sports Illustrated, 2014)
Who are the fittest athletes in sports? The magazine Sports Illustrated has put together its first-ever list of who they consider the current fittest male and female athletes in sports (in 2014). The Sports Illustrated's editors and writers used a 40-point rating system based on four unique criteria, speed, strength, agility and endurance. Each category was based on a scale of 0-10, so a perfect score is 40.
The male athlete to top this list, Basketball player LeBron James, scored a perfect 10 in all four criteria. A few months later, a list of the fittest 50 women in sports was published. In the women's list, the highest rated in each fitness category (speed, strength, agility, endurance) was listed. Sports Illustrated have also created similar lists in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020. See more about rating the World's Fittest Athletes.
The Top 20 Fittest Men
The top-20 of the SI Fittest 50 is listed below. The top 50 included athletes from 14 different sports, including 17 footballers. There are two tennis players, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, in 20th and 31st place respectively.
| rank | Name | Sport | Speed | Strength | Agility | Endurance | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LeBron James | Basketball | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 40 |
| 2 | Christiano Ronaldo | Football (Soccer) | 10 | 8.5 | 10 | 10 | 38.5 |
| 3 | Usain Bolt | Track & Field | 10 | 9 | 8.5 | 9 | 36.5 |
| 4 | Floyd Mayweather | Boxing | 9 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 36 |
| 5 | Dez Bryant | American Football | 9 | 9 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 35 |
| 6 | Calvin Johnson | American Football | 9 | 9 | 8.5 | 8 | 34.5 |
| 7 | Serge Ibaka | Basketball | 7.5 | 9.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 34 |
| 8 | Adrian Peterson | American Football | 8.5 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 33.5 |
| 9 | Jon Jones | MMA | 7 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 33 |
| 10 | Michael Phelps | Swimming | 9 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 33 |
| 11 | Jimmy Graham | American Football | 7 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 32 |
| 12 | Marquise Goodwin | Track & Field | 9 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 32 |
| 13 | Vernon Davis | American Football | 8.5 | 8.5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 31 |
| 14 | Blake Griffin | Basketball | 7 | 8 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 30 |
| 15 | LaRon Landry | American Football | 8 | 9 | 6.5 | 6 | 29.5 |
| 16 | Larry Fitzgerald | American Football | 8 | 6.5 | 8 | 7 | 29.5 |
| 17 | Marshawn Lynch | American Football | 7 | 9 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 29 |
| 18 | Rob Gronkowski | American Football | 7 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 29 |
| 19 | Ashton Eaton | Track & Field | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 29 |
| 20 | Rafael Nadal | Tennis | 7 | 5.5 | 8 | 8 | 28.5 |
Source: Published on Sports Illustrated online, August 2014
Related Pages
- Men's Health listed the 50 Fittest Male Athletes In the World in 2014, with football player Cristiano Ronaldo on top
- The fittest women list for 2014
- Blog post: It's Good to be king, discussing whether LeBron is really the fittest basketballer
- Other lists of the fittest athletes in the world
- Testing to determine the world's fittest athlete
- Who really is the greatest athlete of all time?
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