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The Most Influential and Inspirational Sport and Fitness Icons
It was only in the late twentieth century, during the post-war period, that athletes and sports persons really became celebrities in their own right. There were many famous athletes, that would be reported in the news, but the average person would marvel at their athletic performance in sport, but generally would not idolise them or become fanatical followers of theirs. However, in the the last 50 years, some people have become athletic icons, fitness role models and sporting heroes.
So, who are the greatest athletes, sport personalities and fitness icons of all time? Which people are still admired today, who still give people the motivation to train, to fight, to win, and strive to follow in their heroes footsteps to become the greatest themselves? Here is Motley Health’s Greatest Sporting Heroes:
1. Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee will always be the greatest martial artist that ever lived. No-one can replace him, because he was the first to popularise martial arts in film. He wrote books, gave interviews, and set up schools to teach his methods. But most importantly, even 37 years after the release of his first great films, The Bigg Boss, Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon, he is still admired by youngsters today. People still wish to know how he trained, what he ate, how he fought, what he believed in, and how he conducted his life. Bruce Lee, is the true Legend of Martial Arts, the epitome of fitness and strength. His skill was exceptional, his speed unbelievable, and his training routines were legendary in their intensiveness. Bruce Lee is our number one.
2. Roger Banister
Roger Banister is a bit different from Bruce Lee. Roger Banister was an athlete, born in 1929 between the wars, and lived in a time when athletics was only a pastime for gentlemen and scholars. He attended Oxford University, and later became a distinguished neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, where he continued to work until 2001.
However, Roger Banister is famous for being the first man to break the four minute mile. There was a time that break world records really was something to be marvelled. Nowadays people break world records and it hardly makes it into the mainstream news (unless there are drug tests to invalidate the record).
Bannister started his running career at Oxford in the autumn of 1946 when 17. He had never worn running spikes previously or run on a track. His training was light, even compared to the standards of the day, but he showed promise in running a mile in 1947 in 4:24.6 on only three weekly half-hour training sessions.
He went on to compete in the 1952 Olympic games, but failed to win. After his poor performance. he decided on a new goal – to be the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. Accordingly, he intensified his training. On May 6, 1954, at a competition in Oxford, he did the impossible and broke the four minute mile, in 3 min 59.4 s.
What makes Roger Bannister so great is that well educated people strongly beleive that it was not possible to run a mile in less than four minutes. However, his determination and spirit resulted in him proving the doubters wrong and achieving what was beleive impossible. Since his success, thousands of others have followed in his footsteps.
3. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up in humble surroundings in Austria in the 1950’s. Born in 1947, and had a strict Catholic upbringing. He was a sporting child, and started weight training in 1960 as part of his football training. He soon took up bodybuilding, and was so dedicated that he went AWOL during while serving in the army to attend the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965, which he won. As a result he spent a week in an army jail: “Participating in the competition meant so much to me that I didn’t carefully think through the consequences. When I got to Stuttgart, I was all confused. I forgot my posing routine, I had to borrow posing trunks, but still I won!”
By 1967 he was a strongman, winning the Munich stone-lifting contest. Schwarzenegger’s goal was to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world. In 1970 he won his first My Olympia contest, and at 23 years old was the youngest ever winner, a record he still holds. He then followed this up by winning again for the next five years, until 1975, where he announced his retirement after beating Franco Columbo (who later won, and also trained Sylvester Stallone). In 1980 he competed again, simply because he was in such great shape as a result of because of the running, horseback riding, and sword training he had been doing during the filming of Conan the Barbarian. He won.
Arnold Schwarzenegger later developed an successful acting career, where he reinvented the action hero. He has been an inspiration for thousands who have started bodybuilding after seeing his films. Many say that his success is due to his will to succeed, and his fighting spirit.
4. Sylvester “Sly” Stallone
Sly Stallone is possibly America’s favourite action hero. He brought emotion and feeling to the characters he played, Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, as well as great athleticism, and became an international icon of machismo.
Stallone is an actor first, and bodybuilder second. He started to improve his fitness and started building more muscle for his role in Rocky 2. He employed former Mr. olympia Franco Columbo to aid him in this task, and the result was a body of a professional heavyweight boxer. People the world over love Stallone’s portrayal of Rocky Balboa. A story of how a nobody can work hard and become a somebody, is something that gives inspiration to millions of people today. The Rocky training montage music is still heard in gyms and fight clubs to help motivate and inspire people. Whereas Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Lee were athletes before becoming movie legends, Stallone build his physique to become a movie legend. For this he has earnt our respect.
5. Brad Pitt
Although Brad Pitt has not made many action films, his performance in Fight Club and then later Alexander has motivated many people to strive to develop a body like his. For his role in Snatch, as a gypsy boxer, he trained for the role, and honed his boxing skills at a boxing gym in London, rather than employing an A-list fitness coach. Brad Pitt has a very well toned, and ripped frame. He has kept muscle mass down, but has great muscle definition, and always looks in great shape.
We will be discussing our other heroes of athletics and fitness in later editions. Following these three are:
6. Muhammad Ali
7. David Beckham
8. Lance Armstrong
9. Billy Jean King
10. Michael Jordan
11. Pele
12. Joe Weider
13. Ricky Hatton
14. Paula Radcliffe
15. Kelly Holmes
Tweet Me!Recommended Reading
• Arnold Schwarzenegger Bodybuilding Workout• Sylvester Stallone / Rocky Balboa Strength Workouts
• Harrison Ford’s Rules to Building an Action Hero Body
• Bruce Lee, The Greatest Martial Arts Action Hero
• Why Arnold Schwarzenegger is Good for California
I like your choices for most inspirational sporting heros, and indeed Brad Pitt does have a good body, but what sport did he compete in?!
Hi, I admit the title is misleading. I include “fitness icons” also, of which Pitt is certainly one. Maybe I should update the title to make it clearer! Thanks for the heads up.