[QUOTE=SwimBike;7288597]hahahahaha. I swear I just almost fell over laughing. You really think that you can compare these two sports? 30 minutes of effort?

This thread was guaranteed from the start to turn into cheerleading for one sport over another. Ridiculous. When I watch an olymic competitor, I`m pretty much awestuck regardless of what`s being contested. Swimming a mile in under 16 minutes? I find that pretty baffling. A sprinter doing a 9.69 100 meters? Freakish. Gymnastics? `Strong` isn`t even close. Running sub-5 minute miles for 26.2 miles? Not a bad effort. Cross country skiers. Reasonably fit, you think? (Winter olympics, ok, but...). The list goes on. No one gets to the top of any sport by chance. Thousands of hours are are invested.