Taufik top 20 athletes by Men's Journal

[kwun]

from San Jose Mercury News:

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...ts/5866332.htm

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Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2003

Stanford star's splash landing
MAGAZINE PICKS AZEVEDO AMONG TOP 10 ATHLETES
By Jon Wilner
Mercury News

The Bay Area has one representative on Men's Journal magazine's ranking of the top 10 athletes in the world, but it's not Barry Bonds or Terrell Owens.

It's Stanford's Tony Azevedo, an unassuming sophomore who is considered the best water-polo player in the world.

``When I heard about it, my first thought was, `Which one of my family members is in charge of Men's Journal?' '' said Azevedo, 21, who grew up in Long Beach. ``It's so flattering for me, and it's great for the sport.''

The rankings appear in the June issue of Men's Journal. Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was voted No. 1 by a panel that included former athletes, a sports physiologist, and ESPN commentators Jeremy Schaap and Stuart Scott.

Writer Paul Hochman began by identifying the top athletes in 75 sports, then whittled the list to 20. The panel voted for the top 10 using seven criteria: strength, speed, agility, endurance, hand-eye coordination, creativity and buzz factor.

Azevedo, who is 6-foot-1 and 198 pounds, finished seventh in the voting. His talents will be on display this weekend at Stanford in the five-team U.S. Cup.

``What popped out with Tony was the teamwork wrapped up in an endurance sport. . . . That's a rare combination,'' Hochman said.

But there were two apparent flaws: No women -- it is Men's Journal, after all -- and just one athlete per sport.

Once Kevin Garnett was chosen from the NBA, for example, the magazine eliminated everyone else.

Does Hochman actually believe badminton star Taufik Hidayat, a top-20 selection, is a better athlete than, say, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant?

``Kobe doesn't have to chase a 200 mph birdie around,'' Hochman said.

[cooler]

good find kwun It's good than some critics look at players from all kind of sports and not just a few mainstream ones within north america

[kwun]

yes. that's what i like about it too, even though i have not read the Men's Journal article itself. the fact that a pretty popular US magazine rate players with their true quality is enough for it to be mentioned in BF.

i am not sure if i like the SJMercury's article though, what's your take on the tone at the end of the article? is Mr. Wilner trying to prove a point that badminton is tough, or is he trying to discredit Mr. Hochman's ranking using his basis that badminton is an inferior sport?

[valourarc]

It seems like the Mercury article is trying to rag on badminton more than promoting it. He cites the problems in the survey and they goes on to use badminton as an example. I believe the rebutal at the end is just his way of appearing impartial.

But then again, maybe I'm reading more into the article than there is there..

[cooler]

first, there isn't a perfect survey. The selection criteria had been outlined so i think Mr. Wilner is just filling up space by asking question outside the bound of the survey. It also goes to show the Wilner 's taste in sport is quite limited. By saying whether kevin garnett (basketball player not chosen in that survey) is a better athetlic than taufit tells me wilner's have a biased weighting of parameters (speed, agility, strength, coordination, endurance, cunning and buzzs) for his definition of a perfect athetlic.