I know veganism can be the basis of a healthy lifestyle; what about a lifestyle with much higher metabolic demand?
Are there any successful world-class (or close to that) athletes that are strictly vegan?
Google found me a couple of sites:
A vegan bodybuilder
The bottom of this page has a list of famous vegetarian/vegan athletes.
I would guess that because the number of pure vegans is small, the likelihood of any one of them reaching the top of their profession is that much smaller as a result…
Grim
The list includes Andreas Cahling, whom I remember once describing himself as a lacto-ovo vegetarian (i.e., his diet included dairy and eggs).
I also don’t remember Cory Everson being a veggie at all - she was famous for eating lots of junk food and still getting really ripped for contests.
This is all from long ago, they may have changed.
I suspect some of them were not vegetarians while they were competeing, perhaps after they retired some have become vegie
That Vegan body builder is impressive though, I’ll have to read the site in more detail at home I want to know what he eats!
A few Indian cricket stars are vegans, most notably Anil Kumble. According to this article (Warning! PETA 
) which references Kumble, so is Martina Navratilova, but she may be a more recent convert (though she’s still playing in doubles tournaments).
Check out Mike Mahler, another vegan bodybuilder. I don’t know if he’s world-class, but he is in fantastic shape.
He’s pretty big, but not close to world class
Duke: I don’t follow cricket. How distinguished is Kumble on the world scene? Martina during her prime would have made an excellent case. Was she vegan all along or a recent convert?
**F.U.S.:**ovolacto doesn’t count
grimpixie: The bodybuilder was toned but not large by any standard.
Many of the athletes from the list on the VSDC page would meet the standard of world class, but it’d be nice to have more detail on dietary history (the webpage they refererence is defunct).
Carl Lewis became vegan in 1990. He claims that 1991 was his best year as an athlete.
Anil Kumble is a very solid spin bowler, particularly at home (for those who dont know cricket, 99% of the time bowlers perform much better at home due to certain conditions being met).
He’s very well known in cricket, and is a veteran of the sport.
I wouldnt call him one of the greats, but any cricket fan would know him, and what he does (bowls leg spin).
This picture from the Vegan body builder is scary…
bleh. Those samples aren’t good enough for me. To make a decent case for Vegan diet as a healthy lifestyle you’d need to match up an identical training program, <preferably twins> and limit diet as the one differing factor. I suspect that most of those athletes became vegan later in life after having the benefits of milk, and animal proteins as a child. As for the bodybuilder, he was more Ripped than Big. His bodyfat was obviously low and he does possess an acceptable and impressive amount of muscle mass for a vegan, but he barely classifies as a body builder by today’s standards.
Cheers!
I am pretty sure that Bill Walton was and may still be a vegetarian, not sure if he was ever vegan.
I thought anil kumble was a side effect of a vegan diet