The debate continues. What are the toughest tasks in sports? USA TODAY’s Sports staff took up the challenge to produce a top-10 list.
We asked readers to submit feedback about the 10 Hardest series and we certainly weren’t disappointed. Over 5,000 e-mails were received. Here are the best responses and special mention of the overload of e-mails from Professional Bull Riders Inc.
1. Hitting a baseball
Considering that a major-league pitch can reaches speeds more than 95 mph, hitters have only 0.4 seconds to find the ball, decide where the ball is going and swing the bat.
Get bat to meet ball
2. Race car driving
Skilled drivers encounter a host of problems, but rounding the corners of the track is equivalent to having three 300-pound linemen pushing you for three of the four hours it takes to conclude a race.
G-forces in a race car a weighty experience
3. Pole Vaulting
Vaulting is a matter of redirecting kinectic energy of the runner’s approach speed upward, aided by a long fiberglass pole. To do it, athletes need speed for the sprint, strength for lift-off and flexibility to bend the body over the bar.
Pole vaulting: Doing the ‘seemingly impossible’
4. Hitting a long straight tee shot
Driving a golf ball far and long seems to be an easy thing, until you try it; even professionals have trouble with it. Last year on the PGA tour, only two players, Tiger Woods and Chris Smith, ranked in the top ten for both driving distance and greens in regulation.
Hitting golf ball is matter of physical and physics elements
5. Returning a serve
Traveling at over 130 mph, a tennis serve by today’s top tennis players is traveling at 185 feet per second. At that speed, a player trying to return the serve has a half second to react and return the serve.
You’ve got to see a 130-mph serve to return it
6. Landing a quad
Executing a quad toe loop requires a skater to balance height and rotation while skating on a metal blade a quarter of an inch wide. During a successful quad jump, a skater will reach heights of 18 inches above the ice and experience 300 pounds of centrifugal force, all while spinning four times in just over .5 seconds.
Quadruple jump can throw you for a loop
7. Running a marathon
Running a 26.2-mile race is physically demanding and requires a runner to be disciplined, well-trained and able to withstand pain. Runners, including elite marathoners, often suffer from nagging injuries in the lower back, knees, shins, ankles, Achilles’ tendons and feet. However, most runners will say the reward of finishing a marathon justifies the pain.
26.2-mile run tests body, mind
8. Tour de France
The Tour de France covers more than 2,500 miles in three weeks and requires a variety of cycling skills that must be performed at levels far beyond those of recreational riders. On flat stretches of the course, tour riders must maintain speeds more than 30 mph for hours on stretch. During mountain climbs, cyclists must be able to ride up mountain roads with grades as steep as 15%.
A tour de force
9. Saving a penalty kick
On the soccer field, the goalkeeper’s job is to protect a goal that is 24 feet wide and eight feet high — 192 square feet waiting to swallow a ball about 9 inches in diameter. During a penalty kick, the goalie has 0.25 seconds to move and block a ball traveling at more than 60 mph.
Saving a penalty kick
10. The Downhill
The downhill is an 80-mph exercise in balance and control. With little protection, ski racers hurl themselves down an icy mountain course, alternately digging in their edges to carve the fastest line through turns and putting their skis flat on the snow to gain speed in the straightaways. They fight gravitational and centrifugal forces at every stage in the race.
Downhill skiing at 80-90 mph
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