Academic

This past week in Sports Illustrated, Dan Patrick interviewed Bruce Jenner, gold medalist in 1976 in the decathlon.  Patrick asks Jenner the question of the week:  Is Michael Phelps the world's greatest athlete?  As you may have guessed, Jenner says no, with emphasis.  Although Jenner may have been tongue-in-cheek, he asserts that not Phelps, or even Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James could even train to be a decathlete.  In his words, "[t]hey'd die."  Jenner explains that the world's greatest athlete must excel at the decathlon, which judges how fast you run, how high and long you jump, and how far you throw.  Isn't that what Jordan did?  Run, jump and throw? 

But Jenner explains that these guys wouldn't endure the training, but possibly not because of the physical exertion of being a decathlete.  Jenner explains that none of those professional athletes would endure training all day every day for no money, no publicity, no glory.  And this seems also true of many of the Olympic sports, where top career prospects after even a gold medal seem to include coach, motivational speaker and reality TV show participant (and possibly TV commentator every 4 years).

So, can you name the current world's greatest athlete?  Bryan Clay, who will appear on the Wheaties box (as will gymnast Nastia Liukin).  (Michael Phelps will be on boxes of Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes.)