General Question

Ltryptophan's avatar

Are there known elite athletes that refuse to play professional sports?

Asked by Ltryptophan (12091points) January 1st, 2022 from iPhone

Take for instance track.

We say we know the fastest man in the world is whoever holds the record in an official race. Usain Bolt, right?

But, say there is someone faster, who knows they are much faster.

This secretive person would be holding a pretty impressive card.

Are there individuals we know are like this?

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5 Answers

janbb's avatar

How would we know of them if they are not competing?

Ltryptophan's avatar

@janbb The question is about me not knowing.

But, you could have a dedicated college track athlete running at the top that decides to pursue something else, or doesn’t feel the need to show that they continued to improve after college. Later, their friends from track could still be top tier athletes and have the feel that this friend is much faster than they are they might even time them and witness them breaking the record by a comfortable margin.

I think there are stories of people quickly moving out of obscurity into the pros.

Lightlyseared's avatar

I’d say no. There are people who could be but to get to that standard you need to be training pretty much full time and competing so you know what the standard is so you push yourself to the absolute limit to beat it.

zenvelo's avatar

This question would be more meaningful in the old amateur Olympic days. Back then, many of the best athletes were not pros..

I am in favor of a return to the amateur Olympic days. The IOC could set up a way to fund amateurs for living and training expenses.

ragingloli's avatar

Stunt-drivers, stunt-people, especially for martial arts films. Like the Jackie Chan Stunt Team.

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