This is silly. Of course there are professional athletes out there who could beat Ashton in one event of their choosing. There are many.
I'd say there are plenty of professional athletes out there who could beat him in 3-4 events.
With several months of training, there are a few who could probably challenge him in the decathlon.
9 events would be competitive. Pole vault would be the snag. And long jump would be tough. Hurdles would trip up a lot of them. But the rest of the events Eaton would probably lose.
i kinda like running wrote:
This is silly. Of course there are professional athletes out there who could beat Ashton in one event of their choosing. There are many.
I'd say there are plenty of professional athletes out there who could beat him in 3-4 events.
With several months of training, there are a few who could probably challenge him in the decathlon.
This is pretty much the correct response. But I would add that there would be more than a few.
I eat lots of ice cream wrote:
The702 wrote:Jeff Demps. And if you don't think playing football in the SEC is the highest professional level of the sport, you haven't been paying attention.
USC should have been in that league if you are talking professional college football.....
Jeff Demps ran 10.27 in the final of the 100 on Sunday.
Aston Eaton ran 10.21 during the decathlon.
This is incredible - a real testament to Eaton's prowess.
Earth to Track Fans wrote:
If Lebron James had competed in track and field throughout high school and then trained specifically for the decathlon starting at 18, he'd EASILY be the best decathlete on earth, easily.
He's the best basketball player in the NBA; that doesn't mean he's the most athletic.
And even if he were, you'd still be wrong. Being a good NBA player requires specificity, and sacrificing the things that make you a great all around athlete, in order to do specific things on the court.
With several months of training, there are a few who could probably challenge him in the decathlon.
Several months of training to go 9000 points?
Ok....
Brandon Lloyd, WR for the Patriots, high jumped 7'2 in high school.
No. Track events are harder and more technical.
Only on LetsRun.com...Dude breaks the WR in the decathlon. The distance running community really can't relate to most of the events, but he still has a very respectable 1500m at the end of the deca. There are plenty of people on here who could not run a 4:15 FRESH... let alone do any of the other nine events at a level high enough to score in a high school dual meet.Because he is not in the NBA or NFL, he is at best a second class athlete??? Seriously people... Not everybody WANTS to play basketball or football.I don't think Wayne Gretzky or Roger Federer would really do well in the NBA, NFL (or decathlon, for that matter) so do they not count as real athletes either?
Here is the unfortunate truth wrote:
W. Bearcats Lack wrote:There are probably hundreds of athletes that would crush Ashton Eaton in the decathlon if they had spent years training for the event. If he was truly a great athlete, he would have played one of those professional sports you listed. Real athletes don't do track, except for a couple sprinters.
This ^ is certainly true. Much as I might want to believe otherwise, here in the US 99% of the best athletes gravitate toward football and basketball rather than T&F.
Malamute wrote:
I don't think Wayne Gretzky or Roger Federer would really do well in the NBA, NFL (or decathlon, for that matter) so do they not count as real athletes either?
Give Lebron 3 months training and he could win Wimbledon, easily.
Here are Eaton's marks:
100m - 10.21 - OG B standard 10.24
LJ - 8.23m - OG A standard 8.20m
SP - 14.20m
HJ - 2.05m
400m - 46.70 - B standard 45.90
110H - 13.70 - B standard 13.60
Disc - 42.81
PV - 5.30m - B standard 5.60
Jav - 58.87m
1500m - 4:14.48
So he got the B standard in the 100 and the A standard in the LJ. On a world scale his throws, HJ and 1500 are pretty weak. He's reasonably close to B standard in 3 other events - 400, 110H and PV. If he focused exclusively on any one of those events I'm sure he could get the B standard.
I would even venture that if he focused on his 5 best events he could get B standards in all of them at the same time. Crazy
You people are nuts.
Lebron has probably never exceeded 4:30mile pace at any point in basketball game. His 'speed' is vastly overrated. At 1500m he might do better than expected due to being much more slow twitch than most elite track power-event people (don't underrate the endurance he shows on the court)
Ability right now - assuming 12months of training on form:
100: 12.5
400: 58
1500: 5:20
110h: 16.0
HJ: 6'6"
LJ: 24"
PV: 14"
The throws it is really impossible to guess. Yes he has big muscles but we've never seen him do anything that would quantify his power/strength for throwing. Can he power-clean 350lbs? I doubt it - but Bryan Clay can and he weighs 100lbs less than Lebron.
The majority of the posters on this thread are either trolling or just idiots. About par for the course on the garbage pit that is letsrun.com.
Lebron James could train for decade and he still isn't going to be within 1000 points of Ashton Eaton's world record.
luv2run wrote:
It might be fun to have 10 NFL players all take him on. Each NFL player would do one event each (like a "relay"). So Ted Ginn might lead off in the 100, then someone in the LJ, continue on. Of course finding an NFL to PV might be interested--I am sure a general manager would just love to see that.
That would be fun to watch. Fox Channel, this would be more interesting than guys competing against animals. Make it happen.
I think a lot of you are - strange as it seems - selling Eaton short a bit. Ginn is good, for sure, but damn. Low 13s? Ginn ran 13 high in high school, but the hurdles were lower. I'd say it's a dead heat. Eaton is just unbelievable when you look at the marks together.
Who pole vaults 17' 4", long jumps 27', high jumps 6'8", runs a 10.2 hundred, a 46.7 400, and chucks a javelin almost 200 feet?? Simply ridiculous. He's not getting enough attention, in my opinion.
He would make Jim Thorpe look like a middle school kid...
What's with the fixation on LeBron? He is the most athletically talented NBA player, but because of his height he's largely irrelevant in the dec. His speed is not 'overrated' though, watch how quickly he can get up the court - that's faster than 4:30 pace. Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade or RG3 are much logical targets for this discussion.
Also - I stand corrected, I should have said 'most' linemen aren't overly athletic. There are obviously exceptions.
most lineman run the 100m in about 12.5 - 13.9 seconds while carrying 300+ pounds on them. Thats pretty athletic! A lot of the distance runners on this thread are probably slower than the average NFL Offensive lineman.
Why is everyone saying MLB pitchers? Why not outfielders? They often have better arms than pitchers.
superstud wrote:
Why is everyone saying MLB pitchers? Why not outfielders? They often have better arms than pitchers.
No. 100mph fastball is better than getting a fly ball back to the infield.