# Rangers vs Olympians
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 7, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638 "2017-03-07T19:09:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/1 "2017-03-07T19:09:03Z")
So its generally accepted that Olympic athletes are among the most fit people on the planet but each one tends to have one thing they’ve trained very hard at to the exclusion of all other things. So I wonder if you compared them to someone like an Army Ranger or Navy Seal which would have a greater general fitness level.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/2 "2017-03-07T19:14:39Z")
“Fitness” by itself is a meaningless word. You have to clarify for what purpose? In this case, I’m 100% certain that the Olympians will be the most fit for the purposes of displaying athletic skill in games and in front of crowds. Furthermore, I’m equally certain that the Rangers will be most fit for “leading the way” into battle. Different roles, different goals.
Or did you want to know who would win at arm wrestling?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/3 "2017-03-07T19:21:19Z")
A Ranger or Seal would be closest to a decathlete( in a broad sense), good at a lot of different things, maybe a master of a few but exceptional at none or maybe one.
An Olympian is an extreme master of a single activity. Even a marathon runner would be unable to compete in cycling (and vice versa) despite having a similar aerobic capacity.
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/4 "2017-03-07T20:47:50Z")
Olympians by so far it’s not really a contest. Ranger physical fitness standards can be met by pretty much anyone that works out regularly. Olympians make the most fit guy at your gym look like a couch potato.
That’s not really a knock on a Ranger or a SEAL. For an Olympian, being an athlete is all they do. That’s what, like number 7 on the list of things to be a good soldier?
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/5 "2017-03-07T21:34:22Z")
> [@drewder](#):
>
> So its generally accepted that Olympic athletes are among the most fit people on the planet but each one tends to have one thing they’ve trained very hard at to the exclusion of all other things. So I wonder if you compared them to someone like an Army Ranger or Navy Seal which would have a greater general fitness level.
For what it’s worth, Wiki [says](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larsen_Jensen) Larsen Jensen earned a couple of Olympic medals and then “graduated from the U.S. Navy SEAL BUD/S training program at the top of his class”.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/6 "2017-03-07T21:36:21Z")
It depends on what kind of Olympian you’re talking about. As **running coach** said, a decathlete has to be quite fit in multiple aspects. The physical rigors of being an Olympic archer or a curler are considerably less.
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### Author:  [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/7 "2017-03-07T21:48:28Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> “Fitness” by itself is a meaningless word. You have to clarify for what purpose? In this case, I’m 100% certain that the Olympians will be the most fit for the purposes of displaying athletic skill in games and in front of crowds. Furthermore, I’m equally certain that the Rangers will be most fit for “leading the way” into battle. Different roles, different goals.
>
> Or did you want to know who would win at arm wrestling?
I’ve always believed fitness was measured on several dimensions. A classic example of this is the 5 dimensions:
•Muscular Strength Building
•Muscular Endurance
•Flexibility
•Cardiovascular Exercise
•Coordination
Often times an Olympic event would require one or two of these dimensions and exclude the others. Such as a weight lifter who has amazing strength but very little flexibility or cardiovascular endurance. I would think a Ranger or other special forces person would maybe not be quite as high in any one dimension but would score very highly in all of the dimensions and as such would be more fit overall.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/8 "2017-03-07T22:02:13Z")
> [@drewder](#):
>
> I’ve always believed fitness was measured on several dimensions. A classic example of this is the 5 dimensions:
> •Muscular Strength Building
> •Muscular Endurance
> •Flexibility
> •Cardiovascular Exercise
> •Coordination
> Often times an Olympic event would require one or two of these dimensions and exclude the others. Such as a weight lifter who has amazing strength but very little flexibility or cardiovascular endurance. I would think a Ranger or other special forces person would maybe not be quite as high in any one dimension but would score very highly in all of the dimensions and as such would be more fit overall.
Well, the decathlon has already been mentioned, but I guess the modern pentathlon would stack up pretty well: an Olympian has to be a strong swimmer with the stamina of a distance runner – which presumably involves solid cardio even before factoring in the fencing competitions, which in turn call for the hand-eye coordination to excel at pistol marksmanship – and I’m guessing that folks who are lacking in flexibility aren’t exactly cut out for riding around on horseback in show-jumping contests.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/9 "2017-03-07T22:04:40Z")
> [@Ponch8](#):
>
> It depends on what kind of Olympian you’re talking about. As **running coach** said, a decathlete has to be quite fit in multiple aspects. The physical rigors of being an Olympic archer or a curler are considerably less.
True. I doubt the open-field endurance of even a gold-medal table tennis champion. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/10 "2017-03-07T23:11:44Z")
I think that in overall stamina, the nod would have to go to the Ranger. There’s no Olympic event that lasts _days._
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### Author:  [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2017, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/11 "2017-03-08T14:29:35Z")
Years ago, I saw a show on one of those multi-day endurance races where the team runs, bikes, hikes, climbs, canoes, and whatever else. At the start of the show, they highlighted a team of Navy Seals (might have been Rangers, I don’t remember), acting like they would be the best athletes in the race. A team of average triathletes made the Seals look like weekend beer league softball players.
I think that the reputation of the physical ability of Seals far exceeds the reality.
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### Author:  [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/12 "2017-03-09T11:05:37Z")
> [@drewder](#):
>
> Such as a weight lifter who has amazing strength but very little flexibility
Olympic weightlifters have very high flexibility.
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/13 "2017-03-09T13:41:25Z")
> [@chacoguy](#):
>
> I think that in overall stamina, the nod would have to go to the Ranger. There’s no Olympic event that lasts _days._
Stamina is more a measure of mental toughness, which is a component of fitness, but it isn’t going to make you run faster or jump higher. The question was about fitness. The Olympian wins hands down.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/14 "2017-03-09T15:00:24Z")
> [@Ponch8](#):
>
> It depends on what kind of Olympian you’re talking about. As **running coach** said, a decathlete has to be quite fit in multiple aspects. The physical rigors of being an Olympic archer or a curler are considerably less.
I would guess that the Canadian men’s curling team could match up pretty well with Special Forces soldiers in terms of overall fitness. These are very fit guys. Strength, especially core strength, is awfully important in curling, and while fat people can curl, if you want to be a world champion, hitting the gym is a good idea. Canadians take curling pretty seriously and the fit athlete has a huge advantage over the unfit athlete.
A special forces soldier is going to be damn fit, but he’s not a professional athlete. An army has to take relatively normal men and women - the people you have available, in the USA the people who makes themselves available, in fact - and turn them into soldiers. Physical fitness, especially endurance, is important, but skills and mindset are a big part of it too. You can’t make the standard so high that a normal person can’t pass it or else you will not enough enough soldiers, even in special forces.
Athletes _are literally chosen for being the ones who aren’t normal_. These are the people who were born with an inherent level of strength, speed, and athletic skill others don’t have.
The comparison to the decathlete, who is jack of all trades and master of none, is telling. The fastest a decathlete has ever run the 100m is 10.15 seconds (Damian Warner of Canada last year.) That is _incredibly_ fast. It’s not fast enough to beat the sprinters ion the 100m event, but if you saw Damian Warner run you would be completely blown away. I assure you no U.S. Ranger alive can beat Damian Warner in a footrace, and I strongly suspect they could not beat Warner in any other declathlon event, either. If Warner joined the U.S. Rangers he’d be the fittest man in the unit starting on Day 1 - indeed, I suspect a woman heptathlete champion would be at worst above the median fitness level - but he’d know nothing at all about being a soldier. His struggle wouldn’t be in meeting the fitness goals, because he’s way, way, way above them, and was above them when he was 16. His challenge would be in learning the skills, discipline, and craft of war.
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/15 "2017-03-09T16:38:58Z")
And then there are people like [this guy](https://youtu.be/Y325hZil2fc) (warning: annoying music). Clearly, I need to hit the gym more.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/16 "2017-03-09T17:36:42Z")
> [@drewder](#):
>
> I’ve always believed fitness was measured on several dimensions. A classic example of this is the 5 dimensions:
> •Muscular Strength Building
> •Muscular Endurance
> •Flexibility
> •Cardiovascular Exercise
> •Coordination
> Often times an Olympic event would require one or two of these dimensions and exclude the others. Such as a weight lifter who has amazing strength but very little flexibility or cardiovascular endurance. I would think a Ranger or other special forces person would maybe not be quite as high in any one dimension but would score very highly in all of the dimensions and as such would be more fit overall.
I’d guess Olympic judo champs get plenty of cardio while using hand-eye coordination as the delivery system for upper-body strength – and that they’d never have built up enough stamina to routinely throw folks around, unless they had enough flexibility to routinely _get_ thrown around. Probably have fast footwork and strong legs, too.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/17 "2017-03-09T18:21:35Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#):
>
> Olympians by so far it’s not really a contest. Ranger physical fitness standards can be met by pretty much anyone that works out regularly. Olympians make the most fit guy at your gym look like a couch potato.
>
> That’s not really a knock on a Ranger or a SEAL. For an Olympian, being an athlete is all they do. That’s what, like number 7 on the list of things to be a good soldier?
I have my doubts. They had a Olympic medal winner on Survivor, and she did not that well in physical contests. By and large Olympic medal winners are overtrained for their one particular event.
Now, perhaps a decathlon Olympian.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/18 "2017-03-09T18:27:45Z")
> [@mcgato](#):
>
> Years ago, I saw a show on one of those multi-day endurance races where the team runs, bikes, hikes, climbs, canoes, and whatever else. At the start of the show, they highlighted a team of Navy Seals (might have been Rangers, I don’t remember), acting like they would be the best athletes in the race. A team of average triathletes made the Seals look like weekend beer league softball players.
>
> I think that the reputation of the physical ability of Seals far exceeds the reality.
Yes, but you see those triathletes had trained for that.
---
### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/19 "2017-03-09T21:24:46Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> I have my doubts. They had a Olympic medal winner on Survivor, and she did not that well in physical contests. By and large Olympic medal winners are overtrained for their one particular event.
>
> Now, perhaps a decathlon Olympian.
What sorts of things do they do on Survivor?
The gap between men and women is pretty huge. In 2016, 7 high school boys in California ran 100m faster than any woman has ever run it. Was she competing against men?
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rangers-vs-olympians/781638/20 "2017-03-10T03:51:33Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#):
>
> What sorts of things do they do on Survivor?
>
> The gap between men and women is pretty huge. In 2016, 7 high school boys in California ran 100m faster than any woman has ever run it. Was she competing against men?
Men and women.
> **[Crystal Cox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Cox)**
>
> Crystal Shinelle Cox (born March 28, 1979, in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American track and field athlete who was on the national team at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and appeared as a contestant on the seventeenth season of the reality series Survivor.
> Cox won a gold medal in the women's 4x400 m relay at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. She was later stripped of the gold in 2012 after she admitted to doping. In Athens she ran in the preliminary round but not in the final. DeeDee Trotter, Mon...
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