Indoor Rowing Dream Team

[mrhyner]

A friend and I were talking the other day about which athletes in professional sports would be the most dominant rowers if they decided to switch over and start training. We concluded that the NBA would have some very good potential because of their combination of height, strength, and endurance. Here are some ideas:

Karl Malone: 6'9'' 250lbs



DeAndre Jordan: 6'11'' 265lbs



Serge Ibaka: 6'10'' 245



Usain Bolt: 6'5'' 207lbs



Vernon Davis: 6'3'' 250

[mrhyner]

Also take note, the context of the conversation was for 500m sprints in addition to longer races like 2k.

[DanielJ]

Given a bit of training, Usain could very well be a total beast at 500m. Those fast-twitch muscle fibers, and he's clearly freakishly adapted to move his long legs quickly. And those guys train damn hard with more endurance stuff than one might expect.


As a big, big boxing fan, I think about some of the bigger, more athletic heavyweights (a rarity these days!). Anthony Joshua is a big dude, about 6' 6.5" (199cm), is very strong, and he's surprisingly athletic and moves his body and his feet well. If he doesn't break the machine, he'll produce a very good 500m.

Wladimir Klitschko at about 6' 5.5" (196cm) is also a very good athlete who's worked very, very hard on his overall strength in the last ten years. Wladimir also has a very long reach, so he'd be getting a couple of bonus inches at the catch, and like most dedicated boxers he's actually very fit. It wouldn't surprise me if he could already go sub-6:00, as I've seen him using the erg in training and he's a very clever man so he's probably learned how to use it properly. He's a 250-pound machine.