The World's Fittest Sports - What I Think
There are individual athletes from a large range of sports which would be considered extremely fit, which ever way you define fitness (see info about the world's greatest athlete). However, here we are interested in the SPORT which requires the greatest levels of fitness.
As fitness is not defined by just one component like endurance, speed or strength, the world's fittest sport would be one that requires the highest level overall on a wide range of factors.
Here at Topend Sports we have come up with a list of factors of success in sports, and ranked just the fitness components of these for a range of sports to create our list of the World's Fittest Sport. In a similar process used by ESPN (Most Demanding Sports), by rating each of these factors in a whole range of sports, the profile of each sport can be compared to determine the sport ranked highest in terms of these fitness and sport psychology factors.
I have created a list of the top 10 sports which I consider be require the greatest level of overall fitness. The list was determined by giving a rating to each of the five main trainable fitness components (aerobic, strength, speed/power, flexibility and agility) out of the factors of success in sports, then weighting these scores with aerobic most important, and agility and flexibility the least important.
boxing match
My Fittest Sport - Boxing
Boxing came out on top of my list, as it did in a related list by ESPN. Some of the top 10s from each list is similar (Boxing, Ice Hockey, Tennis) though AFL was not even considered in their calculations. Although over 70 sports were considered here, there may be other sports that could score as well as these if they were included.
| Ranking | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Boxing |
| 2 | AFL |
| 3 | Lacrosse |
| 4 | Field Hockey |
| 5 | Ice Hockey |
| 6 | Team Handball |
| 7 | Tennis |
| 8 | Canoe/Kayak |
| 9 | Squash / Racquetball |
| 10 | Rugby Union |
Related Pages
- Discussion about the World's Fittest Sport
- POLL: What do you think is the world's fittest sport?
- See also about the Fittest Athletes.
- Who is the World's Greatest Athlete?
- Our own list of the World's Fittest Sport
- Vote for the Greatest Athlete of All Time?
- ESPN List of most demanding sports
- The complete lists of factors of success sports rankings.
- Other sport specific lists
- More about the World of Sport
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Old Comments
Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.
- Ceerio (2016)
Cheerleading needs to be on the top ten because you definitely have to be flexible, have ability to do a thousand things, strength to tumble and stunt, and power to jump tumble and stunt. if you have none of these strengths you will not be able to cheer. - Badminton. Speed, flexibility, agility, aerobic and anaerobic, strength both physically and mentally. Watch Lin dan v lee chong Wei to see what I mean!!
- Decathlon needs to be in the top 5. American football should be broken down by position - TE and WR would be in top 5. (from Clay Parker, May 2012)
- SWIMMING SHOULD BE "CO- #1!!!"(from CMM, May 2011)
- Cycling !!! should be number one! (Apr 2011)
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