Liaman wrote:
Not a reply to you specifically Eric.
We could consider the question this way:
Fitness is broadly defined as "The ability to meet the demands of the environment", or words to that effect.
Using this as the measure of fitness, I would argue that runners are the fittest of the three sets of athletes due to the fact that they can excel in a broader range of sporting and day to day environments as a result of their type of conditioning.
A top class runner will have a head start in most sports (compared with others of equal experience in that sport), due to their ability to quickly cover ground on foot. Furthermore, being able to run and move quickly on foot is a much more useful skill across the course of the average person's day to day life.
Of course, there is a lot to be said for the abilities of cyclists and swimmers - They are amazing athletes,
but only in their situationally specific environments.
For example, I can't think of a time in my life where I've HAD to be able to swim. In this day and age, drowning that isn't a result of either a swimmer who got in to trouble or a young child falling into something is mercifully rare. Short of a flashflood or a shipwreck, I can't think of a situation in adult general life where swimming will get you out of danger.
The same is true of cycling. The action of pedalling is just not a thing that exists outside of a cycling specific environment. Sure, having the aerobic capacity is useful. But it isn't backed up with specific muscular conditioning that is applicable to lots of situations in the same way that running is.
My $0.02
Well, i haven't ever
had to run entire life either. As my masters-swim-only friends say, they only run if someone/something is chasing them:)
If we use your fitness definition of "The ability to meet the demands of the environment, or words to that effect", then i would look at it as "who does the most work in their training", from which we can infer "who can do the most work" in the general sense of saying yard work, farm work, etc. Looking at who does the most work implies looking at calories burned in training, which points to swimmers, cyclists, and tri-guys as doing roughly similar amounts of work training, with runners coming in at about 60% as much work done. Your average elite swim/bike/tri guy trains from 1000-1200 hr/yr vs about 600-700 hr/yr for your avg elite distance runner, and hence burns way more calories and does lots more work.
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."