Here is the list of the top 10 biggest athletic freaks in history (in no particular order). The term “athletic freak” can be defined, not as their talents within their respective sport (although that does certainly help), but their raw talent in terms of physical giftedness and athletic ability in terms of strength, size, raw power, and agility.

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Alexander Karelin

Alexander Karelin defines the word “freak”. He was such a freak that people nicknamed him “The Experiment” implying that he wasn’t a human being, that he was some sort of “scientific experiment”. He is known to many as the most feared athlete ever and the toughest S.O.B. around. Karelin is a Russian super heavy weight Greco-Roman wrestler and many consider him the greatest of all time.

Karelin won gold medals at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. He went undefeated in international competition spanning from 1987 to 2000. He was so good that he didn’t give up a single point in the last six years of his undefeated streak. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, American Rulon Gardner stunned the wrestling world and defeated Karelin for the Olympic gold medal to claim the biggest upset in sports history.

Karelin is 6’4 and wrestled at 289 lbs. The man was said to power clean and press over 420 lbs. He would do this move known as the “Karelin Lift” in which he would do a reverse lift and hoist his 300 lb. opponent into the air and slam them violently to the mat. This move was never done as a heavyweight before he came along, and his opponents feared getting thrown by him that they would surrender back points rather than attempt to fight off the throw. He was that good!

Karelin made sure he would train harder than anyone. To prep for an opponent, he would rise, drink half a gallon of milk and then run through the Siberian forest. He would run for two hours in thigh-deep snow. Karelin would say about his training “I train every day of my life as they have never trained a day in theirs” Karelin once carried a refrigerator twice his bodyweight up eight flights of stairs.

When it comes to dieting, Karelin ate anything in site. He would sometimes eat nine slices of pizza and six large glasses of apple juice on a typical day.

Tony Mandarich

The 1989 NFL Draft produced some of the best football players of all time such as Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders. You may be wondering who was the guy drafted ahead of Sanders, Thomas and Sanders? Well, it was Tony Mandarich, a Hall of Fame athletic freak but certainly not a Hall of Fame football player.

Mandarich was one of the most hyped up players in NFL Draft history. In the weeks leading up to the NFL Draft, Sports Illustrated coined Mandarich as “The Best Offensive Line Prospect Ever”. He was a first-team All-American at Michigan State and many looked at him as being the biggest physical specimen in college football history.

This 6’6, 330 pound offensive lineman put up some of the most impressive numbers in NFL Combine history. He ran an official 4.65-second 40 time, faster than Jerry Rice and Emmit Smith did at their respective workouts. In addition, Mandarich bench-pressed 225 lbs. 39 times, had a 30” vertical leap and his broad jump was over 10 feet. At 330 lbs., this guy was 11% body fat. The Packers passed on three future HOF players for a guy who many deemed a true risk.

In college, Mandarich was notorious for turning up to public meetings late, and even drunk.  He also missed team meetings because he was too hungover. 2 weeks before draft day, he challenged then-heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson, to a street fight.

Unfortunately, Mandarich didn’t have a nearly productive NFL career. He made only 47 starts in 10 years and proved to be one of the biggest draft busts in history. The question of steroid abuse has been discussed as a possible factor in Mandarich’s failures, in which he finally admitted to in 2008. 

Even though Mandarich didn’t produce athletically on the playing field, he had the sheer potential to be among the best in his position, a true athletic monster. He just couldn’t keep his head on straight…

Calvin Johnson

Calvin Johnson was one of the most hyped college wide receivers of all time coming out of Georgia Tech in 2007. He was regarded as one of the best athletes to enter the NFL Draft.

In a mid-February workout before the NFL Draft, Johnson clocked a 40-yard dash time of 4.3 seconds, doing so on consecutive times. He had a 10.23 second 100-meter sprint, recorded an 11-foot standing broad jump and a vertical leap of 43 inches, doing this all at 6’5 and 235 lbs.  At the actual Combine, Johnson ran a 4.35 40 time and an 11 ft 7 inch broad jump, which was one of the best in history. Johnson was selected second overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, establishing himself as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL today.

Bo Jackson

When you talk about athletics, Bo Jackson has got to come to mind. The 6’1, 225 lb. Jackson was the first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports (baseball and football). Jackson also won the Heisman Trophy in 1985. Jackson also considered joining the USA Olympic team, but sprinting wouldn’t give him the financial security that the other sports would.

Jackson reportedly ran a hand-timed 4.12 40-yard dash, still considered the fastest verifiable 40 time at an NFL Combine.

LeBron James

At 6’8, 250 lbs., LeBron James is so athletic that he can play any position on the basketball court, a rare combination of talent, size, strength and quickness that has never been seen before.

LeBron has a measured vertical leap of 44 inches and reportedly ran a 4.4 40-yard dash in high school. He caught 57 passes, 1,160 yards and 16 touchdowns as an All-State wide receiver during his junior year of high school. James also played prevent safety and often quarterbacked the scout team. James’ high school defensive coordinator said James could throw a football 70 yards. Many believe James could have had a productive NFL career and might even be able to play in an NFL game with little practice.

Herschel Walker

Herschel Walker is anything but ordinary. At the high school level, he won the state title in shot put, 100-yard dash and 200-yard dash. He also ran the 100 meters in 10.22 seconds, which is not far off from Olympic-like numbers. He also ran 100 yards in 9.3 seconds.

During his college years at the University of Georgia, he set the freshman rushing record en route to a national championship his first year, finishing third in the Heisman Trophy race. He won the Heisman Trophy during his junior year in 1982. Walker left college after his junior year to go to the USFL, where he was a two-time rushing champion before going to the NFL.

Not only did Walker excel in sports such as football and track and field, he is also a fifth-degree black belt in tae kwon do and competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics in two-man bobsled, finishing seventh.

The 6’1, 225 lb. Walker claims to not lift weights. Instead, he performs 3,500 sit-ups and 1,000 pushups every morning that he wakes up. He has done the same routine since high school.

At the age of 48, Walker decided to pursue a career in the MMA. He’s already knocked out his first opponent in his first professional fight and is competing again on December 2, 2010 for his next fight.

Jim Thorpe

Even though Jim Thorpe played in perhaps the earliest stages of athletics, he should be amongst the greatest when it comes to being a true athletic freak.

Thorpe won gold medals in both the decathlon and pentathlon events in the 1912 Olympics in Sweden. He was so good in track and field that he could also run the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat, the 220 in 21.8 seconds, the 440 in 51.8 seconds, the 880 in 1:57, the mile in 4:35, the 120-yard high hurdles in 15 seconds, and the 220-yard low hurdles in 24 seconds. In addition, Thorpe could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in. He could pole vault 11 feet, shot put 47 ft 9 in, javelin throw 163 feet, and throws the discus 136 feet. However, he was stripped of his medals because he played two years of semi-professional baseball.

The 6’1, 190 lb. Thorpe was an All-American halfback at Carlisle, scoring 25 touchdowns and 198 points in his last collegiate season. He was also the team’s defensive back, placekicker and punter. He was so good that after a 92-yard touchdown run was called back due to a teammate’s penalty, he ran a 97-yard touchdown on the very next play. He won the national championship in 1912, carrying the team on his shoulders.

Future President Dwight Eisenhower injured his knee trying to tackle Thorpe in that game. Eisenhower once said of Thorpe, “Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.”

It was also recorded that Jim Thorpe punted a ball 95 yards in a game to put the ball out of reach from the other team.

Once out of school, he played baseball for the New York Giants. From 1913 to 1929 he would go back and forth between playing professional baseball and football, which he played until he was 41 years old. He even made it to the All-NFL team in 1923.

It was also discovered that Thorpe played basketball, but this period of his life was not well documented.

Bryan Clay

Bryan Clay is an American decathlete. He is the reigning Olympic champion and was also World Champion in 2005. Clay won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in the decathlon. His victory margin of 240 points was the largest since 1972. His results were as follows:

100 m - 10.35
200 m - 21.34
400 m - 47.78
110 m hurdles - 13.64
1500 m - 4:38.93
long jump - 8.06 (26' 6'')
high jump - 2.10 (6' 10.5'')
pole vault - 5.15 (16' 10.75'')
shot put - 16.27 (53' 4'')
discus throw - 55.87 (world decathlon best 183' 3'')
javelin throw - 72.00 (236')
60 m - 6.65
60 m hurdles - 7.77
1000 m - 2:49.41

The 5’10, 180 lb. Clay was tested by the SPARQ, which is a standardized test for athleticism. “SPARQ” is an acronym for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness. In the football test, Clay recorded a football score of 130.40, the highest ever recorded. By comparison, Reggie Bush scored a 93.38 on the test.

Clay has a vertical leap of 43.5 inches, one of the highest no step vertical jumps in NBA/NFL Combine history.  He ran the 30-yard sprint (distance from home plate to first base) faster than Jacoby Ellsbury, one of the fastest major league baseball players and had the same SPARQ rating in baseball as him. Clay performed all tests, and his other ratings were: SOCCER 96.50, BASEBALL 102.00, BASKETBALL 90.00 and ATHLETIC ASSESSMENT 145.00. His basketball SPARQ rating is the better than every professional basketball player including Derrick Rose, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade.

Deion Sanders

Deion Sanders was considered one of the most versatile athletes in history. At 6’1 and 195 lbs., Sanders played multiple positions in baseball and football, playing with the biggest and best of them.

At Florida State, he did football, baseball, and track. Besides leading the track and field team to a conference championship, he was a two-time consensus All-American cornerback in 1986 and 1987, and a third team All-American in 1988. He was also a standout punt returner, breaking the school’s record for career punt return yards. In baseball, he hit .331 one year and stole 27 bases the next. On one occasion, Sanders played the first game of a baseball doubleheader, ran in the 4x100 relay, and then returned to play another baseball game.

Sanders played a nine-year, part-time baseball career, playing in 641 games with 4 teams. Although it wasn’t nearly as good as his football career, Sanders hit .304, stole 26 bases and led the NL with 14 triples in 97 games during the 1993 season for the Atlanta Braves. The year before, he batted over .500 in the 1992 World Series with a broken bone in his foot. He also finished second in the NL with 56 stolen bases for the Cincinnati Reds in 1997, doing so in only 115 games.

Sanders achieved the most fame during his 14-year NFL career, being a perennial All-Pro and one of the best pass defenders to ever play the game, specifically playing for the Cowboys, 49ers and Falcons. He also even filled in for Michael Irvin at wide receiver during Irvin’s suspension in 1996.

As a cornerback and special teams player, Sanders was selected to eight Pro Bowls and was awarded the Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1994. His 19 defensive and return touchdowns are an NFL record.

During the 1989 season, he hit a major league home run and scored a touchdown in the same week, the only player to ever do so. Sanders is also the only man to play in both a World Series and Super Bowl.

Sanders ran a 4.1 40-yard dash at his pro-day workout prior to the 1989 NFL Draft. That time was one of the fastest known 40-yard dash times by an NFL player or prospect in history.

Vernon Davis

Sorry, Mario Williams. Vernon Davis is just a tad more of a “freak”.

Vernon Davis is a 6’3, 253 lb. tight end with just four percent body fat. Coming out of Maryland for the 2006 NFL Draft, Davis ran a 4.38 40-yard dash with a 42-inch vertical leap. He also did 33 reps on the 225 lb. bench press.

In high school, Davis ran a 10.7 second 100-meter dash and high jumped 6’5” on the track and field team. When he got to college, the assistant strength coach bet Davis that he couldn’t beat his 425-pound bench press record. Davis not only broke the bench press record at Maryland, but all five others, too. He did a 585-pound squat, a 355-pound power clean, 4.44 seconds in the 40-yard dash and a 38-inch vertical leap, doing this all at 242 lbs. He broke every tight end record as a true freshman. As a sophomore, Davis broke all six of the records he’d set the year before. Then, as a junior, he broke all of his records again, with a 460-pound bench, 685-pound squat, 355-pound clean, 4.41 40-yard dash and a 40-inch vertical leap at 256 lbs.

In the gym, Davis does things like six reps of 405 lbs. on the bench, three reps of 355 lbs. on power cleans and 10 reps of 525 lbs. on squats.

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