Whether it was in middle school, high school, college, etc. Who do you believe was the greatest athlete you ever faced in any type of competition?
Whether it was in middle school, high school, college, etc. Who do you believe was the greatest athlete you ever faced in any type of competition?
Comments
Please do not delete your post after receiving your answer. Consider leaving it up for posterity so that other Redditors can benefit from the wisdom in this thread.
Once your thread has run its course, instead of deleting it, you can simply type “!lock” (without the quotes) as a comment anywhere in your thread to have our Automod lock the thread. That way you won’t be bothered by anymore replies on it, but people can still read it.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Dwayne Jarret in high school football. We got rocked by New Brunswick that season 45-0
In middle/high school there was this guy named “Mike”. He was a stocky white boy that played outside linebacker and fullback. Absolute unit; man playing with boys (pause). He’s currently a CrossFit competitor and does Olympic lifting.
Asmir Begovic. Frick he was a tall kid but really great guy
From Buffalo, played travel ice hockey against Pat Kane a lot growing up. Fastest hands I’ve ever seen. He used to score 5+ goals per game against us, often still with someone shadowing him
Brandon Webb
Chandler Harnish. Dude went on to break a bunch of MAC QB records at Northern Illinois and got drafted by the Colts. Football/track against him in high school. Tackled him a few times but their team was always better than us. Man could chuck a damn discus as well.
I played junior golf with Keegan Bradley in Vermont in the late 90s. He turned out pretty good.
I’ve played pickup ball against a WNBA point guard. Baybay Something. Williams? Spelling might not be right. She was clowning everyone on the court. She was really good.
I wouldn’t say I’ve competed against, but I’ve been on platforms with high level crossfitters and Olympic lifters. I am nowhere in their league. They are super strong genetic freaks.
So a year ago I played a league disc golf round at my local course. I’m not bad, but this was the only competitive disc golf I’ve ever done. Ohn Scoggins, who just won the female world championships this year, happened to be in town and played on the card behind me. I was doing OK until I threw a shank drive and lost the disc. While the card behind me watched, I had to go back and rethrow from the tee pad with a penalty. At this point I was flustered, tired, and very sweaty, and I threw another shank drive into the ground. Then another bad approach shot. I ended up getting an 8 on the hole.
Ryan Sheckler when he was just a kid. Well we were both kids….but he was waaaayyy better.
I did not win a spot on the basketball team against Ron Mercer. High school all American. National Champion at Kentucky. Drafted by the Boston Celtics. But he did cheat off me once in geometry.
I played against a few lads that made it to the premier league and a lot more that made it in the championship and league 1&2 the most well known is probably Dwight Gayle played against him twice the season he scored 40+ in non-league and got his big move he didn’t score against us also played against him at school and district level , the best was probably Freddie Sears ( school level ) he was fast as fuck a great dribbler and could shoot with great power and accuracy, also played against a lot of ex pros in charity games
There was a baseball player in my hometown he died in his sleep the beginning of his senior year. He had full scholarship offers to multiple division 1 schools to play in college. He was leaps and bounds better than any other baseball player I’ve ever seen. He was destined for the major leagues.
Kris O’Dowd who was a lineman at Salpointe Catholic that ended up playing a few years at USC. Just significantly bigger than anyone I’ve ever gone against, it was a complete mismatch
Terrence Trammell. Olympic medalist in 110 hurdles.
He won.
I’d say Dmitriy Muserskiy. 7 foot 2, moves like cloud, strong like ox. One of the best volleyball players of this generation.
Was a scrub on high school rowing team but our team captain won a bronze medal 8 years later
I was in a standard (Olympic distance) triathlon: they end in a 10k run. There was an Aussie ‘Dream Team’ that did one part each, a surf lifesaver, Tour De France veteran Robbie McEwen and marathoner Steve Moneghetti.
I was not much of an aerobic athlete, doing maybe 12kph, and I got to a turn in the run course and I see scrawny Steve zoooooooming up the road, easily doing 25kph (that’s a sub 3 minute kilometre for those at home doing the maths).
Freeeeeeeeow!!!!! He blows last me like I’m stationary. That’s when I truly realised how fast marathoners are, they’re doing 20+kph for 2+ hours. They’re something else, truly.
Went to high school with this dude who was a great friend and a Greek Adonis. When I say 16 and JACKED, I mean the dude looked 25 and had the most cut, buff, toned body I’ve ever seen. We were luckily on the same team and he excelled at Discus and the Hammer Throw.
He maintained his Greek Citizenship and went back to Greece after high school to serve in the military per their law. They moved him out of that to compete as an Olympian.
Adrian peterson, dude was a man amongst boys in hs football. Made us look stupid.
I was in high school gym class with a guy who got to AA baseball after a full ride to college to play baseball. His dad played for the orioles back in the day.
He was an ok dude but really didn’t dedicate himself to his craft and having a professional athlete for a father certainly made him lazy. I remember one time we were running the mile in gym class. We were all running together and then he says I need to quit smoking and then proceeds to lap the whole class.
“Competed” wouldn’t be the right word but I played in one of the best youth basketball programs in Turkey.
I was selected there at 15 and played for 2 years. It was very well funded, coaches coming from the US, great facilities, we were taken to luxury hotels to camp in every semester and summer.
Hedo Türkoğlu (an NBA player at the time) joined one of our camps and spent a couple of days. Aside from the trainings, he played a couple of pick up games with us too. Obviously there wasn’t much of a competition, he took it easy but it was amazing to share the court with an NBA player.
Not only the man was ridiculously tall, he somehow couldn’t miss. It’s been a long time but I distincly remember how amazed I was by him just making every shot he took. Whether in trainings or the games, he didn’t even need to try.
Played Peewee football with a guy that ended up an NFL safety.
Amazing how far beyond the regular kids these guys are even in 6th grade
Not necessarily competitive, but JJ Birden played wide receiver for the KC chiefs and had been a div 1 hurdler in college. He was also a volunteer track coach at my high school.
We’re getting towards the end of practice one day and I’m busting my hump running a leg of a practice 4×400. Coach JJ started running backwards beside me yelling motivational stuff while I’m trying to break 55 seconds for my leg of the race.
Football = Darren Bent – full England international. With over 100 premier league goals. I was a national level sprinter and played academy rugby and he was so fast and strong when it came to football it was insane.
Edit – never officially played against Darren Bent unlike the others. He is from the same local area as me and had turned up to a random football tournament I was in. Just had a little kick about with him between games. Really nice guy. I sucked at football in comparison to all the other sports 🤣
Rugby = Danny Cipriani – another full England international rugby player. I played up 4 age groups so unfortunately played with people way bigger and older than me. But Danny Cipriani stood out to me. Unbelievably talented and definitely knew it. He literally was so good he would just mock teams during games. Unfortunately had alot of issues in his career and fell short of his potential.
For athletics I competed in 100m, 200m and 110m hurdles. By the time I made it to national tournaments my knees were so messed up I barely even remember them.
Adam Gemili was the year above me so often got to see him race but never raced directly against him and he went on to become a sub 10s 100m guy and got 4th in the 200m at the 2016 Olympics.
Hurdles was my best sport and competed at national level but unfortunately there was a guy called David King that was the same age and won our age range tournaments every single time.
I used to work for the Golf company Titleist and due to that got to play with some professional golf players on event days. Andrew “Beef” Johnson wasnt the best but he was by far the most fun to be around 🤣
I’ve competed fairly regularly in the Ottawa Bicycle Club’s weekly time trial series, which is open to club members regardless of age or ability.
People who’ve showed up to previous TT nights that I’ve raced include Michael Woods (4 Grand Tour stage wins, bronze at 2018 road cycling worlds), Derek Gee (9th overall at the 2024 Tour de France, 4th overall at the 2025 Giro d’Italia), Alex Cataford (former WorldTour pro), and Karol-Ann Canuel (3x world champion in the Team Time Trial discipline).
You do not understand speed until one of them has passed you mid-TT like you were standing still.
First high school football game was against Chase Daniels.
He was in a different league even at 14 years old.
In 2004, I went to a book signing by Bill “Spaceman” Lee in Montreal. He accepted an invitation to play wiffleball with me and my friends afterward.
He pitched to ten of us and only one of us got a base hit.
I played high school football against David Terrell. He played WR at the University of Michigan and then in the NFL, mostly with the Bears. Incredible athlete but really hot tempered. Didn’t get to play against him, but Ronald Curry was probably the best high school player I ever watched. He put up insane numbers, like 78 touchdowns in a season.
I watched my dad play in a community fundraiser basketball game. It was a bunch of guys like him, fairly athletic but late 30’s / early 40’s, against a team of football players from Syracuse university, about 25 miles away.
I watched my dad run the floor with Donovan McNabb. It was awesome.
He also told me he matched up with Andy van Slyke, a local product who was a 3-time NL all-star. He played municipal league basketball in Utica with guys like my dad in the early 80’s when he was home for the winter.
For me, I played against a handful of locals who wound up going D1, including Syracuse. Upstate NY looks big but the basketball community is small.
I’ll say Latavius Murray, he was younger than me but he looked like he was carved out of marble when he was in 8th grade.
Breanna Stewart was in high school outside Syracuse maybe 4 years after I graduated, and I know girls that played against her. She is absolutely the best athlete to come out of central New York pound for pound this century
Manu.
It’s not that he was the best athlete I’d compete against, but his combination of traits vs. mine made him my foil. He’s the only player that would “keep me up at night”.
I was known for having lockdown defense, but I mainly used my speed and anticipation, in which his shifty, Messi-like dribble would routinely have me on skates.
College freshman gym class. Played with and against Indiana basketball’s Quinn Buckner and Scott May.
Kevin Kisner. Even at like 12 yo he was an absurdly good putter
Art Skipper was the NCAA javelin champion. He threw it over the fence of our field. I felt very small.
It was a kid that I played soccer with up through elementary school who was one of those kids that everyone knew had a future in the sport professionally at a very early age. Unfortunately, the pressure got to him and derailed those dreams in high school.
Kevin Locke. Rugby league, carved us up. This was before he made it to the nrl.
I played cricket against an All Black once – he was also a decent cricketer (Marc Ellis) playing at the highest domestic level.
This was well after his peak but he still smashed us.
I raced against Alan Webb at a regional cross country meet my senior year of high school (second high schooler to run a sub-4 minute mile, and the first in a generation to do it). He smoked everyone on my team.
I was once in a paintball match with Mike Alstott on the opposite team.
In high school I ran cross country and track in many of the same meets as Sam Prakel, a current professional runner.
Damn, I can’t remember his name… But I wouldn’t say ‘competed’ against because he made me look like a joke who has no business playing football lol.
Darren McFadden.
Played in a Flag Football league against a former no name NFL safety who was maybe in the league 5 years and a back up to the backups. Someone said it was for the Chargers. I don’t recall his name.
What I do recall is him being in his mid-30s, 6’2 and 30 lbs over his playing weight and still being able to out run everyone (lots of young guys) on the field and being otherworldly when it came to quickness. Saw him jump over one of my shorter teammates for a catch. It was humbling since everyone thought they were hot shit in the city league.
Toss up between Nate McLouth and Rob Renes.
McLouth ended up starting in CF for the Pirates in the 2008 All Star game in old Yankee stadium.
Renes was an All American Nose Tackle at Michigan. He was a state wrestling and power lifting champion. He broke up a no hitter of mine with a single up the middle. Finished with a 1-hit shutout. Don’t think I walked anyone that game either.
Reflected Glory!
Had a friend in college that was an offensive lineman. Also played baseball and basketball in high school. He was one of “those” athletes. 6’ 260 and ran a 4.5 40. We played flag football and it was comical to say the least. He was wildly better at literally everything. Faster, stronger, could jump higher, throw further than anyone by a wide margin. It looked like a grown man playing with 5 year olds. I can’t imagine how absurd NFL players are.
Time
Went up against Kasey Keller a lot in high school.
Motorcycle roadracing: John Hopkins (he was 13, I was 31!). He went on to compete for years in the highest level series, the 500CC Grand Prix Championship.
Otherwise, from all the stick-and-ball sports and track-and-field, nobody became a name after high school.
Darren Barber, gold medalist in rowing. World record for the monster erg competition. Great rugby player as well. Just a genetic freak.
If I recall, his grandfather was Syl Apps (NHL star in his day). Uncle also played NHL. His cousin (who I played at uni with) made national rugby team. Genetics matter
Hamish Bond
Rowing –
3 x Olympic gold medalist
8 x world champion
Cycling –
commonwealth games bronze medalist
bronze and gold Oceania championships
Sailing –
2024 Americas Cup winner
Played against former Packers receiver and Super Bowl champion James Jones. He played QB in high school and beat us 62-8 and 26-6. A few years back I saw a segment on ESPN how he was homeless growing up. I just shook my head and thought: this guy was killing us while homeless!!! It made it even worse lol!
Played football against a guy who ended up playing at an FCS school. He then was on a practice squad for the Rams for a few years. He had 7 TDs against us, and we lost 72-10.
I wrestled in high school and I once was going to a match where there was no one in my weight class so I was expecting to hang back. unexpectedly a guy a weight class below me wanted to wrestle. My heart wasn’t in it but it was no excuse for what proceeded. I absolutely could not move him from his base bottom position. No matter how hard I pushed, lifted, pulled on his joints, it was like wrestling a rock. Eventually I wore myself out and he took me down easy. I don’t know if he was juicing or just training way harder but I don’t think there was any scenario where I could have beat him, absolutely devasting defeat.
I played basketball against Reggie White, the HOF football player. He was a defensive lineman in football, but he was also the best basketball player in the state. He was huge, but quick and coordinated more than you can imagine.
I also played against a very young Rex Chapman. I wondered who this goofy kid was, but wow he could play. I think he was 7th or 8th grade playing varsity basketball.
I beat Josh Allen in my last college football game ever
Played men’s league against Deryk Engelland (pro hockey player) to be far he wasn’t really trying. At the time Las Vegas only had two shitty rinks and he was training out there in the summers. He would just drop in on the higher men’s league games as conditioning or something.
I didn’t compete against but went to highschool with a guy who played full back for the Rams blocked for Marshall Faulk. He was senior my sophomore year, our offense essentially was giving him the ball and him running across the field, it would often take 3 guys to bring him down. Our high schools main rival school had Todd Heap as their main offensive star
[deleted]
I played 5-a-side football a few times against Leon Haslam a former British Superbike champion.
He was pretty good, got a couple of shots past me and was very competitive.
Nice guy.
Not me but a former coworker ran track against Carl Lewis in high school. He said the guy was decent but not great. Then he said they competed against him as a freshman in college and suddenly the guy was huge and beating the hell out of everyone, an ad for steroids if he ever saw one.
In high school I played tennis against the number one ranked youth player on the east coast. I did not do well. That being said, my best friend was also a ranked player (albeit not as highly) and while I never beat him in tennis, I have beaten him at ping pong a couple times. I know the skills aren’t 100% transferable it he was still an amazing ping pong player too. It took me years to do but I have been very proud of myself for beating him those few times.
Justin Kloos. He played for the MN Wild for a couple of seasons. My last game of high school hockey we played his team which had 5 D1 commits on the team. He had 10 points that game and we lost 19-0 lol.
I had a buddy who played against Pierre Garcon way back in the day. Sounds like he put up about 400 yards on them 😂
Grew up with MLB player Wil Myers, always knew he was something special
TJ Turner. He played running back at the time but later started for the dolphins in the 80’s as a DE. Big, fast and tough. I played safety and our DLine sucked so when he got tackled, which wasn’t often, I was usually the one who did it. It was like hitting a truck. A believer that game was the last football game I ever played.
Liam Pitchford. Played the British Open one year. I was never going to win it but I could hold my own. I was 19, he was about 14. He unceremoniously knocked me out in the 3rd round. He was a different level. It all just looked so easy to him. I tried every trick in the book, he had an answer for everything.
About 10 years later he was ranked 12th in the world.
Pitches to Zach McAllister who hit a dinger off me. He went on to play like 9 years in the MLB. I had no clue at the time.
It wasn’t really a competition, but years ago I played a game of tennis against the guy who lived across the street. He had been top-100 ranked player just a few years prior.
I really just did it for shits & giggles. I think he was actively trying to not kill me.
I don’t think he ever went pro or anything close to it, but I was in 7th grade with a guy who ran a sub 5 mile at that age, and he hadn’t even really fully grown yet. I was impressed at the time.
Not me, but my dad played against Oscar Robinson in high school basketball. It was back in the 50s.
All of mine were 25+ years ago. I’d bet it was much more common then because everyone wasn’t hyper specialized and doing their sport non-stop to be the best.
When I was training and competing in MMA (US) as an amateur->pro-am, we had 5 UFC signed fighters in the gym. 2 of them at Heavyweight (my division). I immediately understood how large the skill gap was…and I was a top regional prospect at pro-am.
I also got a chance to get manhandled by a national champion wrestler who is very famous.
I played against 3 future D-1 -> NBA players in high school basketball for all 4 years.
Same with Football 2x D1 -> NFL.
Super cool to be able to have some frame of reference with regards to how I stack up against them. And the players today must be insane.
Carey Price – against and with
I was shadowboxing at the gym one day when an older gentleman came up and offered to spar with me. After about 6 seconds it became clear he was much, much better than I was. He didn’t beat me up though, he gave me a lot of good advice and pointers. Nicest guy in the world. When I left I asked the gym owner if he knew who that was and he looked at me like I had three heads. He was former heavyweight Champion Tim Weatherspoon.
One of the guys I work with says he would have gone pro if he didn’t hurt his knee in high school.
He’s the best there ever was, just ask him.
Competed against him in every backyard sport created.
Does that count?
I once played a game against the then-World Champion at table Ice Hockey. I got a 3-point head start and he beat me 5-4. Scoring that single goal against him won me a signed table Ice Hockey-game.
played against top30ranked mma fighter in the world in counter strike if that counts 😀
My dad was the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen when I was like 6. I remember one time he punted a football and it felt like it was never going to come back down. Your dad when you’re 6 is a freak of nature.
I played against Michael Crabtree my senior year oh high school football. So him.
Was a fairly decent cyclist in college and raced for about 5 years. When I’d go to New Mexico for races the fields would be so small that they would make the pros and first 2-3 tiers of amateurs race together.
Toed the line with a guy named Bart Bowen who had just come back from racing at the professional world championships about a week or two prior. He went to the front of the pack and everyone else held on for dear life.
Not really an official race, but the bike shop I worked for had a weekly training ride that would attract vacationing pros who were spending the winter in Arizona. You’d look at the guy next to you and realize that they had finished top 20 the summer before at the Tour de France. Someone would ramp up the pace to almost 30MPH to sprint at the end of the ride and these guys would effortlessly ride off the front to win the sprint.
Friend played against Xherdan Shaqiri in his youth and got smoked. Just on another level, even for the best of the best youth teams
Middle school FB against a kid who later got drafted into the NHL, he was not then a peak athlete. Peak athlete in HS, got a D1 scholarship. Drafted to the pros. Asshole in MS and HS and didn’t make it far due to his attitude. Too bad, because he hit the genetic lottery.
I’ve played in benefit hockey tournaments with retired NHL players. Muh gawd, the way these guys could move, even at 65 years old.
Jacques Cousteau
I ran in the same race as Bob Kennedy when I was in high school. I absolutely didn’t compete against him. Who is Bob Kennedy?
“He was the first ever non-African to run the 5000 meters in less than thirteen minutes, and as of 2012 he is still one of only seven non-Africans to do so. He is regarded as one of the greatest U.S. distance runners in history.”
His Personal Best Times:
1500 meters 3:38.2
Mile 3:56.21 (my best, 5:26)
2000 meters 4:59.9
3000 meters 7:30.84 (Former American Record)
2 miles 8:11.59 (Former American Record) (my best, 11:36)
5000 meters 12:58.21 (Former American Record) (my best, 19:00)
10,000 meters 27:37.45 (my best, 42:35)
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kennedy_(runner)
In college I took some sport classes.
At the time, the football team was national champions.
In my basketball class, one of the starting linebacks. He went pro as well.
He would easily 1v5 us in a full court game. I remember he would dribble past us to half court, throw the ball at the backboard, sprint to it, grab his own rebound as it hit off the backboard, and do a little shot or layup in the paint. If he missed the shot, he would just jump higher than us and grab it again and reshoot. He was so fast and unbelievably coordinated with infinite stamina.
Completely mind blowing to see it up close.
Played lacrosse against Jason Kelce. Didn’t notice him because his older brother (Matt, the one that didnt make the NFL) dominated for their team. Jason was i think a freshman. Travis would have been invested middle school still. Those kids were all several sport athletes, football/hockey/lacrosse.
I played a Russian team in hockey when I was 13 back in 2002. I’m guessing there might have been a future nhl’er on that team since how many Russian teams travel all the way to Minnesota for a youth hockey tournament.
Played hockey against Jason zucker when I was a kid, before he left to go and play more competitive leagues.
I didn’t compete with him but I did a training camp skate with Kyle McLaren, he is hands down the best hockey player that I ever skated with
NFL player Christian Mccaffrey as a underclass running back was totally dominating Colorado football teams, including the best player on our team at the time who guarded him as a linebacker, a great athlete himself.
Mccaffrey has amazing hips. He can change direction and accelerate very very quickly. Truly exceptional in that regard.
I live in New Hampshire. I used to work a lot at one of our factories in Olive Branch Mississippi. I usually tried to get in the Holiday Inn in Olive Branch but that was their university and it often was full of their students.
So, I would stay at a particular Ramada in Memphis near a racquetball club. When most of the guys would go out drinking and eating heavy meals, I would go to this racquet ball club because they had one court set up as a perpetual challenge court.
One time, I played a few games, then 4 guys started to play doubles. I said hey, wait a minute. I payed money at the door to play challenge court. But all the other courts were full. So I said OK. Just one of you play me 1 game so I get my money’s worth and then you guys can take the court. So, they had me play this one guy. He totally kicked my ass. I got 2 points mostly by cheating by choking off his direct line to the front wall.
The other 3 were outside of the glass back wall laughing their asses off watching me get my ass kicked.
When I got out, they told me it was Andy Roberts. The number one amateur in the country.
Tim Shaw, former Penn State and Carolina Panthers LB.
Lost to him in the district finals junior year of HS on a 2pt conversion where I got trucked in the hole. He was a RB on the HS team and I was a 5’11” 170lb DE.
I also had a keg stand competition with my uncle Paul in his prime. GOAT in that discipline.
It wasn’t a competition per-say, but in my youth I was a football (⚽️) referee, and once took charge of a celeb pro-am game.
The professionals, even those who played at lower levels, were head and shoulders above the amateurs, who weren’t too shabby. Playing were two ex-pros that had played for one of England’s bigger clubs, and even in their 40s the technical ability was out of this world.
I walked away from that game vowing never to call a professional footballer player “rubbish” or “shit” again, because them on their worst day is still super-human compared to me on my best.
My mother was a bridge playing legend. At one time, she was the youngest life master west of the mississippi. Everybody wanted to play tournaments with her. In the summer, in grade school when I was home from school, she had a deal for those that wanted her to play with them. If you watch Steve for me on Monday, I will play with you on Tuesday.
So, I was a pass around kid. From one person’s house to the next. All these people treated me like gold. This in San Jose California. My mom’s favorite partner was named Sam. Sam and his wife Dotty played bridge in the evenings at our house or us at theirs pretty much weekly.
So, one day it was Sam’s turn to watch me. Guessing he was around 55 at the time. Maybe I was 9 or 10. He took me to a YMCA on El Camino Real. As we walked in the door, two young men stood to attention and said, Hi Sam, you playing today? Yeah, a little later. I am doing a lesson. We went in and Sam taught me how to play handball. But, I was one of those whiny kids, and the ball hurt my hands, but we did play some. He taught me this shot he called “the pinch” where you slap it in the corner. Claimed he invented that shot. Anyway, when I got sweaty and my now red hands hurt too much, he sent me up to the mezzanine above to watch. As I went out the door there was a line of young men at the door waiting anxiously for me to leave. And 2 on the pay phones calling people up saying, “I’m at the Y, Sam’s here. I went to the mezzanine and watched old Sam kick the ass of every young man in the club.
Next day I asked my mom about that. She told me that Sam, her favorite partner and close family friend, had been handball champion of the world for 6 years straight. Then his son Paul, was champion for the next 7. Just to outdo his dad by one. They called them the Haber’s of Handball.
I ran the 2 mile against Keith Gill. He smoked the field in 9:something. He’s known on Reddit as DeepFuckingValue.
Troy Anderson. Linebacker for Atlanta Falcons. Our HS footballs teams were in same conference.
I snagged a center field pop fly off Michael Saunders (Blue Jays/Mariners) back in Little League. Not a big deal…