Friday, February 26, 2010

(OT)  "World's Greatest Athlete"  --      

The winner of the Decathlon is generally refered to as "the world's greatest athlete" . . . but is he really?

The Decathlon encompasses ten track and field events . . . but that is it . . . all are running, jumping, throwing events.  While decathletes may well claim the title of "greatest track and field athletes" they don't really have to take on so many other athletic disciplines.

Now let us consider the Pentathlete.  The modern Pentathlon is comprised of five athletic events from five totally different disciplines:
  1. Shooting 
  2. Swimming
  3. Fencing
  4. Equestrian
  5. Cross-country Running
The Modern Pentathlon is based on the skills that might be needed by an Aide-de-Camp (aha!  a connection to our historical gaming).

The Pentathlete has to master such a wide variety of skills (with essentially no overlap -- remember eight of the ten decathlon events involve running).

Perhaps the Modern Pentathlete is more deserving of the title of "World's Greatest Athlete".

-- Jeff

7 comments:

ColCampbell50 said...

Jeff,

Sounds logical to me.

Jim

littlejohn said...

I've always enjoyed the pentathalon...a real "wargame" there...

Dave

Capt Bill said...

Maybe you should sponser games for all the imagi-nations...

Fitz-Badger said...

Makes sense to me, Jeff. :)

MurdocK said...

A pentathlete would make a great ADC, save for one thing ... either perfect memory or ability to write a note with a pencil stub perfectly.

I call them one of Napoleon's Immortals were they able to see when plans were going awry in a Battalion Quarre and take the correct action to fix it while doing all these same physical actions!

abdul666 said...

Also, it is said that because of the very different requirements of the various disciplines, pentathlon is relatively free of performance-enhancing drugs... Quite a rarity nowadays.

Anonymous said...

Ola, what's up amigos? :)
I will be glad to get any assistance at the beginning.
Thanks and good luck everyone! ;)