Physical conditioning is ubiquitous among the elite, as all athletes’ bodies are built to meet the unique demands of each sport and withstand the rigors of the game. But what happens when you level the playing field and compare athletes of all shapes and sizes in disparate sports?
Each year Sports Illustrated accepts the challenge and ranks the best-conditioned athletes in the world, consulting trainers, exercise physiologists and performance experts with experience across the college, pro and Olympic levels of sports to evaluate athletes on the following criteria: performances over the last 12+ months (taking COVID-19 layoffs into consideration); demands and risks of their respective sports; durability; training regimens; and other physical benchmarks including power, speed, strength, agility, endurance, flexibility and more.