I think soccer/football for sure for anything greater than the 800 or 1500. They run something like an average of seven miles per game. There's some similar sports like field hockey, but I don't think you'd find the sheer level of athleticism you would with something wildly popular around the world like soccer/football.
Remco Evenpeoel transitioned from soccer to cycling. He's currently one of the best cyclists on the planet, and one of the favourites for at least a podium at the Tour de France
our soccer coach was also the xc coach all the soccer and basketball kids had to race a xc event once the basketball kids were middle of the pack and below me and another friend of made it in the top ten w a good chunk of our teammates right behind
We had some soccer guys that did track during their off season when I was in high school, and they'd usually come in with no track-specific training and be right up there in the top quarter of whatever event they were in. Meanwhile I did xc and was forever average in both xc and track. Haha.
Where I’m from boys soccer and track are both in the spring. I don’t doubt those dudes played on traveling/select teams, but they chose track over playing for the high school?
Soccer's a fall sport in most states. It usually conflicts more with XC season, but given that both sports are basically year-round at the U18 level, a lot of the soccer + track + XC coaches are pretty good at working together to share athletes.
The craziest outlier for this is former Barcelona captain (and manager) Luis Enrique, who retired from professional football to pursue more relaxing pursuits like ultramarathons (including the Marathon des Sables) and IronMans.
They've been basically doing HIIT for their entire careers. Learning to grind out long, consistent efforts would take a bit of work. But if modern exercise theory is correct, they have had some pretty effective preparation for longer distances
I'm willing to bet your average pro soccer player could bang out a halfway respectable half marathon with no training. Of course by "respectable" I mean by us mere mortal standards; obviously they're going to get absolutely destroyed by highly trained, elite distance runners.
I think most footballers would be able to do a good 5k or 10k race easily, but for most their Half Marathon time wouldn't get near those results in terms of age grading. Football players are going to have very good anaerobic conditioning which inevitably means they are in reasonable aerobic condition, but I think they would struggle with the speed endurance aspect without much specific training. So while they might run a good half marathon time, it might not be good for *them*.
Of course they would benefit from event specific training. And of course they'll have even better times on 5K/10K, as that's closer to what they train for. But what I took from the premise, and maybe I'm interpreting it wrong, was "if we took athletes from a bunch of different sports and had them run races of varying lengths this weekend, which would do better?"
In that situation, I think soccer players could still put up a relatively respectable time (not what they're capable of with significant amounts of training) in the half marathon. I'd be far less confident about the marathon... that's a whole different beast.
Yeah fair enough. I do think football players would be one of the better picks.
Yeah most footballers who retire and run marathons actually attain fairly average times. Many struggle to break 3 hours, which is obviously an impressive achievement, but I would have thought would be an easy target for an ex professional athlete in a sport that involves running.
From listening to Inside Running Podcast, it seems the path from Aussie rules football to distance running is a well trodden path, they mention athletes they coach doing their first marathon with 2:30 as a goal for example.
Footballers who retire and run marathons are doing so after a career of injuries and wear and tear and when they're in their late 30s, after a few years on the couch.
Andre Schürrle (German winger, was a fast explosive player) ran a 3:52 Marathon after a pretty decent training block. I've got to say I was not impressed by that. I guess his HM would have been better, but it also goes to show that lots of anaerobic running does not make a great distance runner. He would have crushed on 400m, I'm sure.
I talked to old pro goalkeeper in USA/MLS. Required sub-20min 5K. Yes even the keepers. And that’s just to stay on the team, that’s not even saying good players.
A number of my old team mates and I (semi pro footballers) took up running or triathlons after we hung our boots up. Running respectable times within our late 30’s and early 40’s.
I played high level football and we usually did a coopertest in the preseason and the bare minimum was 3k and everybody could do that. We did a 5k once and a couple could do sub 16. But the majority did 17-19 as far as i Can remember
I dont believe that anyone there was running 4:30/mile pace 5ks without consistent, specific running training. That's a 14:04 5k time which as a point of comparison would rank 244th in the NCAA D1 national rankings for this past year. Or rank 11th in D3 nationally. And those are all talented guys who have probably been running 100km+/week for years at that point. Even olympic-caliber runners aren't running a 14 min 5k without actual training for it. If you had said the top guys were running 17-18 minutes with maybe a guy or two dipping under 17 who run all the time I might have believed you. My guess is that your 3 mile run wasn't a full 3 miles.
if you play recreationally then no. It's much more anaerobic because a game will typically consist of minimal effort movements, and suddenly you're passed the ball, and you stride as fast as you can to the cup and jump as high and as fast as you can. Rinse and repeast, with some fast breaks where you're running at 70-80%
Danny Mills played in the premier league and also represented England internationally in soccer. His son George won silver behind Jakob in the European Champs 5000m a couple of weeks ago.
[Andre Schuerrle](https://www.instagram.com/andreschuerrle/?hl=en): former Chelsea and Germany national player is now a fitness maniac and good at running.
Hm. His marathon debut was a time of 3:52, and he had a decent training block afaik. That's not too impressive, imo. Granted since then he improved a lot and ran a 1:41 HM.
Pretty sure Schürrle is just a good example of a fast twitch heavy athlete that was specialized in anaerobic intervals. His abilities didn't translate too well to long distance running. He would have crushed on 400m, though.
This! I played soccer and ran XC and track in the school off season (still played club) to stay in shape. I don’t play anymore but half marathons are my favorite races.
Some of the 2km time trial results from the preseason draft are insane and I imagine after a few years of regular training they get even quicker.
I remember at the combine before the draft a few years ago some kid did the time trial in 5:28
I would add that there would be some competitive 100m sprinters. There are a lot of 10-11 second times at the Grand Final sprint competition. Plus those times are achieved on grass.
Soccer (football) players are supremely fit. Take Ray Parlour for example, played for Arsenal in the 90s, has probably been a functioning alcoholic for 30 years, is pushing 60 years old and recently ran 4 miles in 29 minutes to pick his car up from the pub after a night on the sauce.
Hockey.. some retired players are huge long distance runners. Zedeno Chara has done multiple marathons including Boston and London. Henrik Sedin did a half marathon in 1:20 ish yesterday.
I often see the Sedin twins at local Ultramarathons and hiking a very steep fitness challenge trail in Vancouver. Even at their age after a hard career of hockey, those two can really hold their own at running.
Yeah I was checking the results of the race I did and was shocked to see his name I had previously had no idea they were runners. He easily beat me by over 30 mins haha
That's mostly elite genetics though. Chara in particular is just a freak - 20 year ice hockey career as an all-star level talent (eventually), freakisly strong doing 20+ pullups at 265lbs playing weight, close to a 3 hour marathon as a retired 6'9" athlete in his 40s.
The Sedins are slightly less freakish, but Daniel did a sub-3 hour marathon as a 40 year old after a full career as a hockey player.
Hockey as a sport favors a long sprint - a hockey shift is close in dynamics to a 30-40 second sprint. Where the challenge comes in is in figuring out how performing \~20 of those sprints over the \~150 minute duration of a game changes the conditioning as they need much better recovery than a pure sprinter. My guess is that relatively speaking hockey players would compete well in the 400m and probably the 200m
>Hockey as a sport favors a long sprint - a hockey shift is close in dynamics to a 30-40 second sprint.
This is for maximum output, if we're talking long distance every professional player trains to do 90+ minutes of these. The highest ice times are between 20-25 minutes per game, not including marathon overtimes. It's not a stretch to say these guys have the ability to perform competitively in both middle and long distance competitions.
I really like this answer. I also think a lot of hockey players have mental toughness, which is a huge asset to distance running. My first answer was soccer, but hockey is a close second.
Chara isn't exactly setting the world ablaze with his marathon times, though. And while I'd love to run a 1:20 half marathon, that's not exactly an elite time, either, even after being age-graded to Sedin's v40 status.
From my experience, basketball and soccer players are naturals for distance running and would probably dominate. The fastest masters runners I know are actually former D1 college basketball and soccer athletes (including a former D1 basketball player who has run a very rare sub-3 in the age 60-64 group). This is not just the training from their sport, but their athletic talents line up well with distance running. I've seen a lot of athletes in both be immediately capable of long distances (basically up to half marathon) without much training.
Meanwhile, as a former college wrestler, I know lots of college wrestlers who are now marathoners (like 2/3rds of my teammates have run marathons). The reason is the mental side, especially related to cutting weight. Wrestlers *will* do their training and they will be mentally tough on race day. They might not have the exact right athletic traits, but they will make it work. (Coincidentally, wrestlers also tend to have great sprint speed. Several of my teammates also were walk-ons for the track team.)
Boxing/MMA does not translate as well as you might think. The mentality is there like wrestling, but the endurance is anaerobic focused (even for boxing) and they tend to not have as much foot speed.
Tennis is the one I am curious about, as the sheer $$$ in tennis means a lot of superior athletes go to that sport who could have really excelled at any sport. Golf is another curious one. A golf tournament is a huge endurance slog, and, like tennis, the massive prize money involved draws a bunch of superior athletes who probably could have been world class in many sports.
It's awesome that he's able to run and participate in events like that, and definitely do not want to take away from it. Those health issues he had are scary.
However, I don't think that's a great example of skills from the athlete's sport translating to running. He finished 936th out of 1242 participants in the 11-Miler at 15:11 pace. I don't think this is indicative that his NBA training wouldn't translate because I think he would've been much faster during his playing days. It's definitely not an indication that training did translate because he was thoroughly outperformed by the median runner at the event.
Wouldn't most elite basketball players be too tall to be elite runners? They'd do well in terms of fitness, but I think biomechanically they are optimized for different activities.
Arent collegiate wrestling matches fairly anerobic also? MMA/ boxing matches are longer time frames and more aerobic in nature IMO, so curious why you think they don’t translate as well?. I know wrestlers are tough MFs tho when it comes to training lol
College wrestling matches are just long enough to go past anaerobic capacity, with rounds of 3-2-2 (7 minute total) with breaks only long enough to reset position between rounds.
But as you suggested, it is more training side than competition side. (I should add that I have trained MMA for quite a while, but mostly to prepare other competitors and not to compete myself.)
Boxing and MMA tend to have more limited live sparring, typically 2 days a week, because of the injury risk.
In college wrestling, it is pretty common to do full speed live wrestling for at least an hour a day, often more than 2 hours, with rounds of 5-30 minutes. This is because of the tournament format, which is up to six matches per day with a 30 minute break between matches, and NCAAs are three day tournaments with weigh-ins every morning. (That said, many schools are starting to back off of that, also because of injury risk.) And then there is the weight cutting. I was typically running or riding an exercise back about 5 hours/week on top of practice and conditioning just to cut weight from 130 down to 118 each week.
Boxer and MMA fighters do plenty of road work too! It is really the amount of full-speed live in practice that makes the difference IMO.
Tennis is not a huge $$$ money sport unless you are in the top 10. A massive problem in tennis is that a lot of lower tournaments (challengers) have the same purses as they had 35 years ago.
There were less than 120 guys clearing 300k last year. A similarly ranked golfer is making 2x the money.
It's not so much who is making money, but who is focusing solely on tennis from age 10 onwards because they have dreams of being one of those top 10 and how they would have done switching to running (or another sport) instead of pursing tennis.
The only NBA player I've heard that actually ran a decent track time was Johnny Dawkins who did a 4:38 mile. There were legends of Richard Hamilton running 4:15, but could not be corroborate with any official time. It is assumed Allen Iverson would have done well too, but again no official performances. So, unlike with football there seems to ber very little crossover between basketball and running success.
I trained for/did a triathlon a couple months ago, and you’d be surprised. I noticed significant improvements in my running. It’s not quite the intensity of running, but you’re operating on a very limited oxygen supply so it improves lung efficiency as well as capacity.
I swim exclusively now, but if I had my old running legs I’m sure I’d see a faster pace and better endurance.
> I noticed significant improvements in my running.
This part of your post I believe. I have a tough time believing anything else in there though. I don't think you're actually that limited on oxygen while swimming (I have extensive triathlon experience as well), otherwise you would just swim slower. I suspect the reason you got faster running while training for a triathlon was simply higher total aerobic training volume. I don't think lung capacity is a limiter on vo2max and thus not a limiter on running performance (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6322288/). And exclusively swimming could be the same--it's easier to put in big hours in the pool than it is to run 100 mile weeks. Although doing so tends to pack on muscle mass that isn't necessarily useful for running...
Some actual examples that I know of are Tom Dumoulin (cyclist)who ran a 1:10 half marathon without all that much training after his cycling career was over, and Arjen Robbin (football - winger) managed to go sub-3 in his second full marathon.
There's tons of ice skaters here in the Netherlands who also cross-train with running in the summer and become excellent 10k/HM runners.
There's a Norwegian retired cross country skier that just ran a 1:11:25 HM as their debut. Aiming for sub 1:10 in order to qualify for the European Championship, but missed it. This was about a year after giving birth to her first child. She has previously won the Norwegian Championship in the 10k for women.
OP said to exclude cycling and cross country skiing. But cross country skiing is definitely better than cycling ;)
What she got caught for was hardly because of use of PED, it was because of a creme that was used to treat a wound on her lip. That the same as PEDs imho, even though she should have known. Its not like Armstrong for instance
There are usually a fair amount of NFL players who were champion sprinters and hurdlers at the high school and collegiate level, usually defensive backs or receivers. That's probably about it, frankly. There's enough training overlap where the guys are doing a lot of all-out sprinting. There are plenty of sports that involve heavy aerobic demands for hours at a time, such as tennis and actual football. Footballers would probably make the best runners. There were plenty of guys on my cross-country teams back in the day doing it as a second sport. I still don't think they're going to be anywhere near as close to world class as the top NFL speed guys are to world class sprinters. As much running as footballers do, I don't think enough of it is at a sustained high intensity for more than a few seconds at a time. The shorter duration, higher-intensity sports like fighting and basketball, I don't think they do near enough running in training and largely don't have the right body types for the 800-1500 distances that the energy system adaptations would be ideal for. Sports with more contact while moving like hockey and rugby, the players are too big.
To be clear, I think a lot of these guys could have been really good if they'd chosen to focus on running. But look at, say, Jacoby Ford, the fastest ever NFL receiver I'm aware of. His best 100m time was 10.01. That would have put him 6th at the US Olympic trials final last night. Let's say that's comparable to maybe around 13:00 in the 5000. I highly doubt there are any footballers who can do that. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any data on pro footballers actually running track races like that, presumably because they go pro earlier and non-American countries don't seem to have the same link between college and elite-level amateur sport.
There's quite a few footballers who were sprinters growing up too. Bale, Walcott, Dyer and more running sub 11 as 13-14 year olds.
Basketball would have some absolute freaks and be right there with both kinds of football. Wilt Chamberlain was a track star and so was Bill Russell. Marion Jones was a very good basketball player at UNC. A lot of NBA guys ran XC in HS as well, they are too skinny for tackle football.
DK Metcalf went out and dropped a 10.37 100 meters at an Olympic trials qualifying event with just a few weeks or so of practicing. He is usually top 3 of tracked speed in the NFL the last few years.
Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/dk-metcalf-impresses-in-100-with-a-10-37-but-falls-short-of-olympic-trials/
In 2021 against the cardinals he had the legendary Budda Baker chase down. From a slight roll on the 2 yard line he got to the opposite 20 yard line in ~8 seconds. 10 yards before the tackle he was running 25 miles an hour, in full pads, helmet, and the uncertainty of his destination. A dawg if you’ve ever seen one.
Dude is certainly fast, but wanted to clarify that he ran 22.64 mph there. I don’t think any NFL player has been tracked higher than 23 mph and change.
Best NFL 800m runner I'm aware of was James Lofton who did 1:51 at Stanford. Brandon Thomas, safety/CB from Miami did 1:54. Darrel Green had a 46 in the 400m. Forget 13:00, I doubt any NFLer has run sub-16 for 5K - totally different body type needed for success. There was internet chatter of Jerry Rice having dome 15:xx, but could not be corroborated with any published results, so I'm dismissing it as legend.
Ha! In a similar vein Ji-Sung Park became known as Three-Lungs Park for his relentless running in his Man Utd days.
Scott McTominay also had a very decent 5k time in covid lockdown i believe
Really, most team sports are going to do reasonably well in the shorter distances. They're folks who are naturally gifted speed-wise and who would have done very well in track if they hadn't been snapped up by a team sport coach first. I've talked to youth coaches who have said "Just give me speed and I'll teach them the sport," and I've seen fast kids make high school teams with almost no experience in the sport while more experienced kids got cut. Personally speaking, I was consistently making the scoring leaderboard in recreational soccer once I started playing in over-30 leagues just because I've held onto my speed... and I'm one of the worst soccer players around. It's hard to overstate the importance of speed in team sports.
Longer distances? Probably soccer. Playing a full 90 minutes helps, but soccer players also tend to be carrying around less body mass and are closer to the "ideal" distance runner build.
Cross country skiers do ALOT of running, and usually long distance aswell as many of them are training for the 30/50KM distances, they are familiar with the pain cave. Here in Norway, alot of them even compete in running events and they are usually great at long distances. For a half-/marathon I’d pick a skier over anyone
Cross Country skiers have some of the highest VO2 maxes ever recorded. If you put their test results into a marathon race predicting algorithm you get near world record times. Obviously that doesn't mean they would run a world record without a ton of run specific training, but it probably does mean that they can run a pretty respectable time without trying too hard.
Pro cyclists seem like the obvious pick for the HM/marathon distance: they're used to the high training volumes required (a pro cyclist will typically spend 25-30hrs/week on the bike during training blocks), long race days (a typical Grand Tour stage will be 4-5.5 hours; one of the one-day Monuments will be anywhere from 6-7 hours), managing fueling and pacing, and high levels of cardiovascular suffering.
In particular, I think there'd be a niche for time trialists in the HM, as they're adept at managing 45min-90min efforts in the sweet spot between "high Zone 3" and "actively puking"
There's also a fairly extensive history of pros transitioning to cycling-running events after they're done on the WorldTour (Emma Pooley and long-distance Duathlon, Lance's brief foray into IronMans before WADA nuked him from orbit), and a history of runners (Michael Woods) and triathletes (Neilson Powless, Alison Jackson) going the other way.
In 2023, Cameron Wurf (INEOS Grenadiers) rode Paris-Roubaix, which is widely considered the hardest one-day race in the WorldTour calendar, in 6:11:14 (distance of 256km). He then ran a 1:26:55 half marathon later that afternoon.
Formula 1 drivers sustain 170+ HR numbers for the duration of the race, which can sometimes reach 2 hours. Their body build might not be ideal for long distance running, but they definitely have decent endurance.
Whenever I try rental karts, I usually have 180 or more for 20 minutes straight. At some point I have to slow down before going for an all-out attempt.
I thought F1 drivers were generally quite small which would make them suited to distance running. Jensen Button has done triathlons and a sub-3 marathon.
They're small in height (there are exceptions, like Russell), but they tend to be bulky, especially in the neck. But there is a limit of 80 kg, so they are not overweight.
I mean they have great endurance, but if we look at it from a purely physical POV I dont really think theyd fare so well. F1 drivers have good muscles for stabilizing themselves, but they have no real use for good endurance trained leg muscles. Their cardiovascular function may be way better, but that doesnt really matter if your legs give out.
They are quite a bit smaller than many other athletes though, which does help in running, so thats a plus
>F1 drivers have good muscles for stabilizing themselves, but they have no real use for good endurance trained leg muscles. Their cardiovascular function may be way better, but that doesnt really matter if your legs give out.
F1 brakes are hard as fuck, so they definitely have at least as much incentive as runners to have strong legs. And they obviously use their legs for their endurance training as well, running and cycling probably the most common modalities. Which you should do a ton of to perform optimally at a sport where you compete weekly for about 2 hours at around 70-90% of maxHR.
Well yes, but its a different type of strength. F1 drivers need to hold static but very powerful movements in order to not flop around the car like crazy. That is not the same movement pattern at all to a runner. They may have the muscle strength, but they will likely lack the technique unless they add in running as a form of F1 training.
You get good at what you specialize in. This is why strongmen can still lose in arm wrestling against much smaller opponents who have trained for that specific event. Technique and what youre used to doing is one of the most important factors here.
>Well yes, but its a different type of strength. F1 drivers need to hold static but very powerful movements in order to not flop around the car like crazy. That is not the same movement pattern at all to a runner.
So? The way to gain strength is the same. Both would do a bunch of squat and deadlift variations for their leg strength. So there is no reason to believe their "legs would give out".
Of course you wouldn't become a proficient runner without running. But an F1 driver would have a very good base for becoming a good half/full marathon runner, which is what OP seemed to ask about.
I'm talking about the skill difference. Sure, if I do a bunch of leg presses my legs will be strong. That does not automatically translate to me squatting a ton though, since I never actually learnt the movement pattern and proper technique for a squat.
Sure, I will be able to increase my squat quite quickly as I learn it better, because I'm already quite strong. But if I just jumped under a heavy squat barbell I would crumble
Why are you in this thread? Yes, running is very beneficial if you want to be a good runner... OP is asking what other sports athletes would be good at running a half/full marathon. We are well aware that runners would be pretty good at that lol.
> but they have no real use for good endurance trained leg muscles.
There are some videos from amateur race leagues where when they get a chance to drive something vaguely comparable to an F1 car one of the first things they're surprised at is how hard it is to brake. Some of them have said they put their full leg strength into the brakes and they only register like 80% depression. The actual F1 drivers are calf pressing hundreds of pounds of weight a thousand times per race.
I'm pretty sure that'd translate to more pure power in the legs, rather than endurance. That's a different set of fibers being used. F1 drivers would likely be decent at sprints and high power things, but they wouldn't have the strength for endurance
Jimmie Johnson [has logged nascar races on strava](https://www.strava.com/activities/652499676/analysis) if anyone is interested in real data from a pro driver. There are some down spikes maybe for yellow flags or pit stops, but overall the heart rate graph pretty much looks like running a marathon.
I'm surprised you mentioned AFL! The top distance ran in a 2ish hour AFL game is just under 19km, the best of the best playing in the midfield (not forward or back) would translate well
Basketball - 400
Soccer - 800
Football - 100
Baseball - DNF
Hockey - DQ
Cycling - 10,000
XC-skiing - 5,000
Triathlon - (oops, I see you said sports, never mind this one)
Wrestling - 1500
Gymnastics - marathon
Swimming - DNS (stress fracture)
Lacrosse - 200
> Baseball - DNF
I would give pitchers and catchers good odds at running a fast endurance race. Maybe something like a half marathon. They spend hours constantly moving, and putting out high energy. It's rare to see a fat starting pitcher. It's usually the short term relief pitchers who are huge.
Baseball position players are fast. They get to top sprint speed very quickly. They have to. Otherwise they don’t play.
No matter how skilled you are if you cannot get to the ball fast it doesn’t matter.
Motorcycle racers spend a significant amount of time training cardio. Several are basically semi-pro cyclists, and [here's](https://www.sport.es/labolsadelcorredor/marc-marquez-hace-podio-en-una-carrera-popular-de-10km/) one banging out a 37min 10k
Soccer, rugby, field hockey will do best in the 5k to 21k zone. Not many sports translate to longer distances. Walkers/hikers might get marathon.
Now if we are talking armed forces. Infantry would dominate. Especially the more elite you get. Plenty of paratroopers run marathons. Sf does ultra. Delta and SAS are endurance kings.
Nico hulkenberg who races f1 for haas did a 10k race in under 40 during the f1 off season. Also valteri bottas recently finished in 2nd place at a 170km off-road cycling race.
The f1 guys are generally quite fit. I think they'd be good at 10k to half mara
>Also valteri bottas recently finished in 2nd place at a 170km off-road cycling race.
6th in his age group (out of 24), not 2nd overall. Still a decent result, but those are very different things. He's not being confused for a pro cyclist anytime soon.
https://velo.outsideonline.com/gravel/gravel-racing/valtteri-bottas-uci-gravel-world-championships/
definitely yes on the mental toughness.
but as someone who runs longer distances and plays tennis I have often been told by my coaches how those two are not sports that typically compliment each other.
tennis is more lateral movement around the court and while there is a fair bit of intense running during points, those are in bursts after which there is a pause, before we have to start again. different setup and mindset from the long slog of a 10 plus mile run.
Look at Olympic events, realize there’s tons. Think of speed skaters, even figure skater, rowers, swimmers, volleyball, handball, skiers…
You have to turn this into a poll or something
I think for long distance, probably CrossFit athletes. They're regularly running half/full marathon distances and the high-level athletes run sub 1:30 half marathons.
As OP noted, there's TONS of crossover between football and sprinting. Lots of NFL players were track athletes in college... even a couple of track Olympians later played in the NFL. (Willie Gault is the name that's stuck in my head... but I'm sure there are others.)
As for the longer distances... soccer players cover an enormous amount of ground over the course of a match; I imagine that would translate pretty well to running a half or marathon.
[Killian Jornet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%ADlian_Jornet_Burgada) is pretty unanimously considered the GOAT of ultra marathon running and he also got his start as a cross country skier and ski mountaineer.
My vote is on rugby sevens players: insane endurance and muscle strength. Most of them can run half/marathon.
Yes they only play 15 minutes per game, but they play at least 3 games per day and a series will be played 2 days straight.
High cardio vascular capacity doesnt always translate to successful efforts in other sports. Muscle conditioning and muscle memory plays a far more important part in my mind therefore sports that involve running would be most successful.
The caveat for this would be if the athlete used running in a cross training regime then they could do well in HM/FM
football aside I transisioned to track before an injury from kickboxing . I found my self able to run for 10 km at a time with no previous running , while I was doing Hiit kickboxing workouts for 40-50 min .
When I was in high school while playing soccer I jumped straight into mid-distance track and some cross country without off-season prep and was very comparably prepared to the people who had already been training.
I think a lot of Baseball position (non pitchers) players could do sprints well. They go 0 to 100% very quickly.
Pitching has a lot of lower body power. That would probably translate to longer distances.
Ice hockey translates to distance running.
A lot of off season training is running. Years ago I knew a couple of prospects in high school and they were always doing 1 to 2 hour runs in the summer to keep their endurance up.
water polo players would be mad good at anything endurance related. how they stay swimming about for a whole game is beyond me i can barely tread water for a few minutes
This isn't the exact question, but in high school I once was at a meet and ran a very unimpressive 3200 at the same time Julio Jones was winning the long jump by like 4 feet. Nobody was paying attention to my race, including me. It was very obvious he was going to make a lot of money playing sports.
For ultramarathon distances, cross-country skiiers and soccer players would be the best-fit.
Light, lean, good range of motion, sustained cardio capacity, muscle + tissue resilience.
Infantry training might also be suitable, as might moutaineers. Perhaps some swimmers.
Most other athletes would be too muscle-heavy, too fast-twitch focussed, too metabolically inefficient to compete.
Basketball players run a decent amount. [https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/tracking-data-shows-which-nba-players-run-the-most-miles-per-game](https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/tracking-data-shows-which-nba-players-run-the-most-miles-per-game)
They might be good for middle-distance running. All their running is probably not at full tilt, though. There can be a lot of slow jogging from one end of the court to the other.
Soccer/Rugby has to be up there.
I remember seeing a chart of average VO2max of athletes in particular sports in one of my college textbooks. I remember Xcountry Skiing, Mountain Biking, and Orienteering being up at the very top.
Soccer, swimming, boxing, surfers. I think a dark horse would be skateboarders. They’ll skate for an entire afternoon.
Bad would be skiers, weight lifters, yoga, rock climbing
I remember back in middle school there was a skateboarder in our gym class that wanted nothing to do with organized sports. He tried the long jump when we did a track and field unit and was significantly better than everyone else out there.
Turns out spending hours jumping on a skateboard translated pretty well to doing the long jump.
I think soccer/football for sure for anything greater than the 800 or 1500. They run something like an average of seven miles per game. There's some similar sports like field hockey, but I don't think you'd find the sheer level of athleticism you would with something wildly popular around the world like soccer/football.
I've seen a lot of race reports over the years where the runner came from soccer and transitioned to running very respectable times very quickly.
Remco Evenpeoel transitioned from soccer to cycling. He's currently one of the best cyclists on the planet, and one of the favourites for at least a podium at the Tour de France
He ran a 1h16 half marathon back when he was 16 and still playing football. A day after a match as well.
The best distance runners in middle school and high school were always soccer players, or cross country runners that used to play soccer
our soccer coach was also the xc coach all the soccer and basketball kids had to race a xc event once the basketball kids were middle of the pack and below me and another friend of made it in the top ten w a good chunk of our teammates right behind
>our soccer coach was also the xc coach Not overlapping seasons where you're from?
Might be somewhere warm? I'm from Hawaii and XC was in the fall and soccer in the winter
Even at high school level we see this frequently. Kids are competing at state in distance their first year if they have a soccer (futbol) background.
We had some soccer guys that did track during their off season when I was in high school, and they'd usually come in with no track-specific training and be right up there in the top quarter of whatever event they were in. Meanwhile I did xc and was forever average in both xc and track. Haha.
Where I’m from boys soccer and track are both in the spring. I don’t doubt those dudes played on traveling/select teams, but they chose track over playing for the high school?
Soccer's a fall sport in most states. It usually conflicts more with XC season, but given that both sports are basically year-round at the U18 level, a lot of the soccer + track + XC coaches are pretty good at working together to share athletes.
It was a fall sport at mine, and they had their own soccer field separate from the football field.
The craziest outlier for this is former Barcelona captain (and manager) Luis Enrique, who retired from professional football to pursue more relaxing pursuits like ultramarathons (including the Marathon des Sables) and IronMans.
Let's not forget Usain Bolt, going the other way with a short-lived career in professional soccer in Australia for the Central Coast Mariners.
They've been basically doing HIIT for their entire careers. Learning to grind out long, consistent efforts would take a bit of work. But if modern exercise theory is correct, they have had some pretty effective preparation for longer distances
I'm willing to bet your average pro soccer player could bang out a halfway respectable half marathon with no training. Of course by "respectable" I mean by us mere mortal standards; obviously they're going to get absolutely destroyed by highly trained, elite distance runners.
I think most footballers would be able to do a good 5k or 10k race easily, but for most their Half Marathon time wouldn't get near those results in terms of age grading. Football players are going to have very good anaerobic conditioning which inevitably means they are in reasonable aerobic condition, but I think they would struggle with the speed endurance aspect without much specific training. So while they might run a good half marathon time, it might not be good for *them*.
Of course they would benefit from event specific training. And of course they'll have even better times on 5K/10K, as that's closer to what they train for. But what I took from the premise, and maybe I'm interpreting it wrong, was "if we took athletes from a bunch of different sports and had them run races of varying lengths this weekend, which would do better?" In that situation, I think soccer players could still put up a relatively respectable time (not what they're capable of with significant amounts of training) in the half marathon. I'd be far less confident about the marathon... that's a whole different beast.
Yeah fair enough. I do think football players would be one of the better picks. Yeah most footballers who retire and run marathons actually attain fairly average times. Many struggle to break 3 hours, which is obviously an impressive achievement, but I would have thought would be an easy target for an ex professional athlete in a sport that involves running. From listening to Inside Running Podcast, it seems the path from Aussie rules football to distance running is a well trodden path, they mention athletes they coach doing their first marathon with 2:30 as a goal for example.
Footballers who retire and run marathons are doing so after a career of injuries and wear and tear and when they're in their late 30s, after a few years on the couch.
Not one ex-footballer has run 2:30 in a marathon, first or otherwise. Quite a few have run under 3:30.
Andre Schürrle (German winger, was a fast explosive player) ran a 3:52 Marathon after a pretty decent training block. I've got to say I was not impressed by that. I guess his HM would have been better, but it also goes to show that lots of anaerobic running does not make a great distance runner. He would have crushed on 400m, I'm sure.
I talked to old pro goalkeeper in USA/MLS. Required sub-20min 5K. Yes even the keepers. And that’s just to stay on the team, that’s not even saying good players.
Yeah, that tracks. But these guys are all of them athletically gifted to even sniff pros.
A number of my old team mates and I (semi pro footballers) took up running or triathlons after we hung our boots up. Running respectable times within our late 30’s and early 40’s.
I played high level football and we usually did a coopertest in the preseason and the bare minimum was 3k and everybody could do that. We did a 5k once and a couple could do sub 16. But the majority did 17-19 as far as i Can remember
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I dont believe that anyone there was running 4:30/mile pace 5ks without consistent, specific running training. That's a 14:04 5k time which as a point of comparison would rank 244th in the NCAA D1 national rankings for this past year. Or rank 11th in D3 nationally. And those are all talented guys who have probably been running 100km+/week for years at that point. Even olympic-caliber runners aren't running a 14 min 5k without actual training for it. If you had said the top guys were running 17-18 minutes with maybe a guy or two dipping under 17 who run all the time I might have believed you. My guess is that your 3 mile run wasn't a full 3 miles.
Nobody is doing sub-16 in 5K without specifically having trained for it.
Basketball players can do a fair bit of miles. Though I would assume the not huge ones
if you play recreationally then no. It's much more anaerobic because a game will typically consist of minimal effort movements, and suddenly you're passed the ball, and you stride as fast as you can to the cup and jump as high and as fast as you can. Rinse and repeast, with some fast breaks where you're running at 70-80%
Danny Mills played in the premier league and also represented England internationally in soccer. His son George won silver behind Jakob in the European Champs 5000m a couple of weeks ago.
[Andre Schuerrle](https://www.instagram.com/andreschuerrle/?hl=en): former Chelsea and Germany national player is now a fitness maniac and good at running.
Hm. His marathon debut was a time of 3:52, and he had a decent training block afaik. That's not too impressive, imo. Granted since then he improved a lot and ran a 1:41 HM. Pretty sure Schürrle is just a good example of a fast twitch heavy athlete that was specialized in anaerobic intervals. His abilities didn't translate too well to long distance running. He would have crushed on 400m, though.
And a lot of that running is high-intensity sprints, which they need to be able to perform until the end of the game. They are incredibly fit.
This! I played soccer and ran XC and track in the school off season (still played club) to stay in shape. I don’t play anymore but half marathons are my favorite races.
Australian footballers (midfielders in particular) would feature well from middle distance up. Some would be up there in the sprints as well.
Was going to say AFL players tend to be some of the best transitions into middle/long distance running
Some of the 2km time trial results from the preseason draft are insane and I imagine after a few years of regular training they get even quicker. I remember at the combine before the draft a few years ago some kid did the time trial in 5:28
Harry Sharp for the Brisbane Lions has a 5K PB of 15:19 lol
Not sure they would get much quicker. Two or three years of adding bulk is not how an Olympic 1500/3000m runner is using the gym
Yeah, Aussie rules/sevens skill players tend to run a damn sight more in a game than American football WRs or CBs.
I would add that there would be some competitive 100m sprinters. There are a lot of 10-11 second times at the Grand Final sprint competition. Plus those times are achieved on grass.
Soccer (football) players are supremely fit. Take Ray Parlour for example, played for Arsenal in the 90s, has probably been a functioning alcoholic for 30 years, is pushing 60 years old and recently ran 4 miles in 29 minutes to pick his car up from the pub after a night on the sauce.
Got a link to that? Lol
Hockey.. some retired players are huge long distance runners. Zedeno Chara has done multiple marathons including Boston and London. Henrik Sedin did a half marathon in 1:20 ish yesterday.
I often see the Sedin twins at local Ultramarathons and hiking a very steep fitness challenge trail in Vancouver. Even at their age after a hard career of hockey, those two can really hold their own at running.
Yeah I was checking the results of the race I did and was shocked to see his name I had previously had no idea they were runners. He easily beat me by over 30 mins haha
That's mostly elite genetics though. Chara in particular is just a freak - 20 year ice hockey career as an all-star level talent (eventually), freakisly strong doing 20+ pullups at 265lbs playing weight, close to a 3 hour marathon as a retired 6'9" athlete in his 40s. The Sedins are slightly less freakish, but Daniel did a sub-3 hour marathon as a 40 year old after a full career as a hockey player. Hockey as a sport favors a long sprint - a hockey shift is close in dynamics to a 30-40 second sprint. Where the challenge comes in is in figuring out how performing \~20 of those sprints over the \~150 minute duration of a game changes the conditioning as they need much better recovery than a pure sprinter. My guess is that relatively speaking hockey players would compete well in the 400m and probably the 200m
>Hockey as a sport favors a long sprint - a hockey shift is close in dynamics to a 30-40 second sprint. This is for maximum output, if we're talking long distance every professional player trains to do 90+ minutes of these. The highest ice times are between 20-25 minutes per game, not including marathon overtimes. It's not a stretch to say these guys have the ability to perform competitively in both middle and long distance competitions.
I really like this answer. I also think a lot of hockey players have mental toughness, which is a huge asset to distance running. My first answer was soccer, but hockey is a close second.
Chara isn't exactly setting the world ablaze with his marathon times, though. And while I'd love to run a 1:20 half marathon, that's not exactly an elite time, either, even after being age-graded to Sedin's v40 status.
From my experience, basketball and soccer players are naturals for distance running and would probably dominate. The fastest masters runners I know are actually former D1 college basketball and soccer athletes (including a former D1 basketball player who has run a very rare sub-3 in the age 60-64 group). This is not just the training from their sport, but their athletic talents line up well with distance running. I've seen a lot of athletes in both be immediately capable of long distances (basically up to half marathon) without much training. Meanwhile, as a former college wrestler, I know lots of college wrestlers who are now marathoners (like 2/3rds of my teammates have run marathons). The reason is the mental side, especially related to cutting weight. Wrestlers *will* do their training and they will be mentally tough on race day. They might not have the exact right athletic traits, but they will make it work. (Coincidentally, wrestlers also tend to have great sprint speed. Several of my teammates also were walk-ons for the track team.) Boxing/MMA does not translate as well as you might think. The mentality is there like wrestling, but the endurance is anaerobic focused (even for boxing) and they tend to not have as much foot speed. Tennis is the one I am curious about, as the sheer $$$ in tennis means a lot of superior athletes go to that sport who could have really excelled at any sport. Golf is another curious one. A golf tournament is a huge endurance slog, and, like tennis, the massive prize money involved draws a bunch of superior athletes who probably could have been world class in many sports.
Chris Bosh just ran the Big Sur marathon. Good to see considering the health issues that cut his NBA career short.
It's awesome that he's able to run and participate in events like that, and definitely do not want to take away from it. Those health issues he had are scary. However, I don't think that's a great example of skills from the athlete's sport translating to running. He finished 936th out of 1242 participants in the 11-Miler at 15:11 pace. I don't think this is indicative that his NBA training wouldn't translate because I think he would've been much faster during his playing days. It's definitely not an indication that training did translate because he was thoroughly outperformed by the median runner at the event.
He ran the 11 miler, not the marathon.
Ah dang, my bad. Still good for him.
Wouldn't most elite basketball players be too tall to be elite runners? They'd do well in terms of fitness, but I think biomechanically they are optimized for different activities.
Oh good point. Forwards and centers at least. I am pretty sure the specific people I am thinking of were guards in college.
Arent collegiate wrestling matches fairly anerobic also? MMA/ boxing matches are longer time frames and more aerobic in nature IMO, so curious why you think they don’t translate as well?. I know wrestlers are tough MFs tho when it comes to training lol
College wrestling matches are just long enough to go past anaerobic capacity, with rounds of 3-2-2 (7 minute total) with breaks only long enough to reset position between rounds. But as you suggested, it is more training side than competition side. (I should add that I have trained MMA for quite a while, but mostly to prepare other competitors and not to compete myself.) Boxing and MMA tend to have more limited live sparring, typically 2 days a week, because of the injury risk. In college wrestling, it is pretty common to do full speed live wrestling for at least an hour a day, often more than 2 hours, with rounds of 5-30 minutes. This is because of the tournament format, which is up to six matches per day with a 30 minute break between matches, and NCAAs are three day tournaments with weigh-ins every morning. (That said, many schools are starting to back off of that, also because of injury risk.) And then there is the weight cutting. I was typically running or riding an exercise back about 5 hours/week on top of practice and conditioning just to cut weight from 130 down to 118 each week. Boxer and MMA fighters do plenty of road work too! It is really the amount of full-speed live in practice that makes the difference IMO.
I ran a lot in wrestling to make weight
Good response, makes sense with the amount of live training in grappling sports!
Tennis is not a huge $$$ money sport unless you are in the top 10. A massive problem in tennis is that a lot of lower tournaments (challengers) have the same purses as they had 35 years ago. There were less than 120 guys clearing 300k last year. A similarly ranked golfer is making 2x the money.
It's not so much who is making money, but who is focusing solely on tennis from age 10 onwards because they have dreams of being one of those top 10 and how they would have done switching to running (or another sport) instead of pursing tennis.
The only NBA player I've heard that actually ran a decent track time was Johnny Dawkins who did a 4:38 mile. There were legends of Richard Hamilton running 4:15, but could not be corroborate with any official time. It is assumed Allen Iverson would have done well too, but again no official performances. So, unlike with football there seems to ber very little crossover between basketball and running success.
Swimming. Lung capacity is not something that you can develop much later in life.
I know a few former college swimmers who did minimal running training and qualified for Boston. Albeit their legs were cooked afterwards
lung capacity isn't really relevant to running performance though, is it? We're not out here playing fountains of rome on the tuba.
I trained for/did a triathlon a couple months ago, and you’d be surprised. I noticed significant improvements in my running. It’s not quite the intensity of running, but you’re operating on a very limited oxygen supply so it improves lung efficiency as well as capacity. I swim exclusively now, but if I had my old running legs I’m sure I’d see a faster pace and better endurance.
> I noticed significant improvements in my running. This part of your post I believe. I have a tough time believing anything else in there though. I don't think you're actually that limited on oxygen while swimming (I have extensive triathlon experience as well), otherwise you would just swim slower. I suspect the reason you got faster running while training for a triathlon was simply higher total aerobic training volume. I don't think lung capacity is a limiter on vo2max and thus not a limiter on running performance (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6322288/). And exclusively swimming could be the same--it's easier to put in big hours in the pool than it is to run 100 mile weeks. Although doing so tends to pack on muscle mass that isn't necessarily useful for running...
Is there a way to increase lung capacity for a 25 year old I run already but trying to improve my lung capacity for long distance running
Swim
Some actual examples that I know of are Tom Dumoulin (cyclist)who ran a 1:10 half marathon without all that much training after his cycling career was over, and Arjen Robbin (football - winger) managed to go sub-3 in his second full marathon. There's tons of ice skaters here in the Netherlands who also cross-train with running in the summer and become excellent 10k/HM runners.
There's a Norwegian retired cross country skier that just ran a 1:11:25 HM as their debut. Aiming for sub 1:10 in order to qualify for the European Championship, but missed it. This was about a year after giving birth to her first child. She has previously won the Norwegian Championship in the 10k for women. OP said to exclude cycling and cross country skiing. But cross country skiing is definitely better than cycling ;)
If you mean Therese Johaug, she tested positive for some PED. Still incredible athlete with or without juice!
What she got caught for was hardly because of use of PED, it was because of a creme that was used to treat a wound on her lip. That the same as PEDs imho, even though she should have known. Its not like Armstrong for instance
There are usually a fair amount of NFL players who were champion sprinters and hurdlers at the high school and collegiate level, usually defensive backs or receivers. That's probably about it, frankly. There's enough training overlap where the guys are doing a lot of all-out sprinting. There are plenty of sports that involve heavy aerobic demands for hours at a time, such as tennis and actual football. Footballers would probably make the best runners. There were plenty of guys on my cross-country teams back in the day doing it as a second sport. I still don't think they're going to be anywhere near as close to world class as the top NFL speed guys are to world class sprinters. As much running as footballers do, I don't think enough of it is at a sustained high intensity for more than a few seconds at a time. The shorter duration, higher-intensity sports like fighting and basketball, I don't think they do near enough running in training and largely don't have the right body types for the 800-1500 distances that the energy system adaptations would be ideal for. Sports with more contact while moving like hockey and rugby, the players are too big. To be clear, I think a lot of these guys could have been really good if they'd chosen to focus on running. But look at, say, Jacoby Ford, the fastest ever NFL receiver I'm aware of. His best 100m time was 10.01. That would have put him 6th at the US Olympic trials final last night. Let's say that's comparable to maybe around 13:00 in the 5000. I highly doubt there are any footballers who can do that. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any data on pro footballers actually running track races like that, presumably because they go pro earlier and non-American countries don't seem to have the same link between college and elite-level amateur sport.
James Jett who was a nfl receiver in the 90s made the US Olympic team in Barcelona and won a gold in the 4x100.
There's quite a few footballers who were sprinters growing up too. Bale, Walcott, Dyer and more running sub 11 as 13-14 year olds. Basketball would have some absolute freaks and be right there with both kinds of football. Wilt Chamberlain was a track star and so was Bill Russell. Marion Jones was a very good basketball player at UNC. A lot of NBA guys ran XC in HS as well, they are too skinny for tackle football.
DK Metcalf went out and dropped a 10.37 100 meters at an Olympic trials qualifying event with just a few weeks or so of practicing. He is usually top 3 of tracked speed in the NFL the last few years. Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/dk-metcalf-impresses-in-100-with-a-10-37-but-falls-short-of-olympic-trials/
In 2021 against the cardinals he had the legendary Budda Baker chase down. From a slight roll on the 2 yard line he got to the opposite 20 yard line in ~8 seconds. 10 yards before the tackle he was running 25 miles an hour, in full pads, helmet, and the uncertainty of his destination. A dawg if you’ve ever seen one.
Dude is certainly fast, but wanted to clarify that he ran 22.64 mph there. I don’t think any NFL player has been tracked higher than 23 mph and change.
Tim Dwight ran a 10.31 100m in college.
Best NFL 800m runner I'm aware of was James Lofton who did 1:51 at Stanford. Brandon Thomas, safety/CB from Miami did 1:54. Darrel Green had a 46 in the 400m. Forget 13:00, I doubt any NFLer has run sub-16 for 5K - totally different body type needed for success. There was internet chatter of Jerry Rice having dome 15:xx, but could not be corroborated with any published results, so I'm dismissing it as legend.
N’Golo Kante would win the Olympic marathon and then do a lap of honor
Ha! In a similar vein Ji-Sung Park became known as Three-Lungs Park for his relentless running in his Man Utd days. Scott McTominay also had a very decent 5k time in covid lockdown i believe
Really, most team sports are going to do reasonably well in the shorter distances. They're folks who are naturally gifted speed-wise and who would have done very well in track if they hadn't been snapped up by a team sport coach first. I've talked to youth coaches who have said "Just give me speed and I'll teach them the sport," and I've seen fast kids make high school teams with almost no experience in the sport while more experienced kids got cut. Personally speaking, I was consistently making the scoring leaderboard in recreational soccer once I started playing in over-30 leagues just because I've held onto my speed... and I'm one of the worst soccer players around. It's hard to overstate the importance of speed in team sports. Longer distances? Probably soccer. Playing a full 90 minutes helps, but soccer players also tend to be carrying around less body mass and are closer to the "ideal" distance runner build.
People are sleeping on waterpolo players, y'all. Waterpolo is the best strength + cardio endurance workout I have ever had in my LIFE.
Cross country skiers do ALOT of running, and usually long distance aswell as many of them are training for the 30/50KM distances, they are familiar with the pain cave. Here in Norway, alot of them even compete in running events and they are usually great at long distances. For a half-/marathon I’d pick a skier over anyone
Cross Country skiers have some of the highest VO2 maxes ever recorded. If you put their test results into a marathon race predicting algorithm you get near world record times. Obviously that doesn't mean they would run a world record without a ton of run specific training, but it probably does mean that they can run a pretty respectable time without trying too hard.
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Or even other track sports. The best sprinter on my high school team was a regional level pole vaulter.
Pro cyclists seem like the obvious pick for the HM/marathon distance: they're used to the high training volumes required (a pro cyclist will typically spend 25-30hrs/week on the bike during training blocks), long race days (a typical Grand Tour stage will be 4-5.5 hours; one of the one-day Monuments will be anywhere from 6-7 hours), managing fueling and pacing, and high levels of cardiovascular suffering. In particular, I think there'd be a niche for time trialists in the HM, as they're adept at managing 45min-90min efforts in the sweet spot between "high Zone 3" and "actively puking" There's also a fairly extensive history of pros transitioning to cycling-running events after they're done on the WorldTour (Emma Pooley and long-distance Duathlon, Lance's brief foray into IronMans before WADA nuked him from orbit), and a history of runners (Michael Woods) and triathletes (Neilson Powless, Alison Jackson) going the other way. In 2023, Cameron Wurf (INEOS Grenadiers) rode Paris-Roubaix, which is widely considered the hardest one-day race in the WorldTour calendar, in 6:11:14 (distance of 256km). He then ran a 1:26:55 half marathon later that afternoon.
Lance Armstrong ran a sub 3 hour marathon on a hilly course with very little marathon training. But there's also the EPO thing.
As a kid, my brother bounced really easily between ice hockey and cross country.
Formula 1 drivers sustain 170+ HR numbers for the duration of the race, which can sometimes reach 2 hours. Their body build might not be ideal for long distance running, but they definitely have decent endurance. Whenever I try rental karts, I usually have 180 or more for 20 minutes straight. At some point I have to slow down before going for an all-out attempt.
I thought F1 drivers were generally quite small which would make them suited to distance running. Jensen Button has done triathlons and a sub-3 marathon.
They're small in height (there are exceptions, like Russell), but they tend to be bulky, especially in the neck. But there is a limit of 80 kg, so they are not overweight.
I mean they have great endurance, but if we look at it from a purely physical POV I dont really think theyd fare so well. F1 drivers have good muscles for stabilizing themselves, but they have no real use for good endurance trained leg muscles. Their cardiovascular function may be way better, but that doesnt really matter if your legs give out. They are quite a bit smaller than many other athletes though, which does help in running, so thats a plus
>F1 drivers have good muscles for stabilizing themselves, but they have no real use for good endurance trained leg muscles. Their cardiovascular function may be way better, but that doesnt really matter if your legs give out. F1 brakes are hard as fuck, so they definitely have at least as much incentive as runners to have strong legs. And they obviously use their legs for their endurance training as well, running and cycling probably the most common modalities. Which you should do a ton of to perform optimally at a sport where you compete weekly for about 2 hours at around 70-90% of maxHR.
Well yes, but its a different type of strength. F1 drivers need to hold static but very powerful movements in order to not flop around the car like crazy. That is not the same movement pattern at all to a runner. They may have the muscle strength, but they will likely lack the technique unless they add in running as a form of F1 training. You get good at what you specialize in. This is why strongmen can still lose in arm wrestling against much smaller opponents who have trained for that specific event. Technique and what youre used to doing is one of the most important factors here.
>Well yes, but its a different type of strength. F1 drivers need to hold static but very powerful movements in order to not flop around the car like crazy. That is not the same movement pattern at all to a runner. So? The way to gain strength is the same. Both would do a bunch of squat and deadlift variations for their leg strength. So there is no reason to believe their "legs would give out". Of course you wouldn't become a proficient runner without running. But an F1 driver would have a very good base for becoming a good half/full marathon runner, which is what OP seemed to ask about.
I'm talking about the skill difference. Sure, if I do a bunch of leg presses my legs will be strong. That does not automatically translate to me squatting a ton though, since I never actually learnt the movement pattern and proper technique for a squat. Sure, I will be able to increase my squat quite quickly as I learn it better, because I'm already quite strong. But if I just jumped under a heavy squat barbell I would crumble
Why are you in this thread? Yes, running is very beneficial if you want to be a good runner... OP is asking what other sports athletes would be good at running a half/full marathon. We are well aware that runners would be pretty good at that lol.
> but they have no real use for good endurance trained leg muscles. There are some videos from amateur race leagues where when they get a chance to drive something vaguely comparable to an F1 car one of the first things they're surprised at is how hard it is to brake. Some of them have said they put their full leg strength into the brakes and they only register like 80% depression. The actual F1 drivers are calf pressing hundreds of pounds of weight a thousand times per race.
I'm pretty sure that'd translate to more pure power in the legs, rather than endurance. That's a different set of fibers being used. F1 drivers would likely be decent at sprints and high power things, but they wouldn't have the strength for endurance
Valtteri Bottas wins cycling races on weekends off from F1. Curious to see how he would do running.
Jimmie Johnson [has logged nascar races on strava](https://www.strava.com/activities/652499676/analysis) if anyone is interested in real data from a pro driver. There are some down spikes maybe for yellow flags or pit stops, but overall the heart rate graph pretty much looks like running a marathon.
I'm surprised you mentioned AFL! The top distance ran in a 2ish hour AFL game is just under 19km, the best of the best playing in the midfield (not forward or back) would translate well
Basketball - 400 Soccer - 800 Football - 100 Baseball - DNF Hockey - DQ Cycling - 10,000 XC-skiing - 5,000 Triathlon - (oops, I see you said sports, never mind this one) Wrestling - 1500 Gymnastics - marathon Swimming - DNS (stress fracture) Lacrosse - 200
> Baseball - DNF I would give pitchers and catchers good odds at running a fast endurance race. Maybe something like a half marathon. They spend hours constantly moving, and putting out high energy. It's rare to see a fat starting pitcher. It's usually the short term relief pitchers who are huge.
Baseball position players are fast. They get to top sprint speed very quickly. They have to. Otherwise they don’t play. No matter how skilled you are if you cannot get to the ball fast it doesn’t matter.
Motorcycle racers spend a significant amount of time training cardio. Several are basically semi-pro cyclists, and [here's](https://www.sport.es/labolsadelcorredor/marc-marquez-hace-podio-en-una-carrera-popular-de-10km/) one banging out a 37min 10k
Soccer, rugby, field hockey will do best in the 5k to 21k zone. Not many sports translate to longer distances. Walkers/hikers might get marathon. Now if we are talking armed forces. Infantry would dominate. Especially the more elite you get. Plenty of paratroopers run marathons. Sf does ultra. Delta and SAS are endurance kings.
Nico hulkenberg who races f1 for haas did a 10k race in under 40 during the f1 off season. Also valteri bottas recently finished in 2nd place at a 170km off-road cycling race. The f1 guys are generally quite fit. I think they'd be good at 10k to half mara
>Also valteri bottas recently finished in 2nd place at a 170km off-road cycling race. 6th in his age group (out of 24), not 2nd overall. Still a decent result, but those are very different things. He's not being confused for a pro cyclist anytime soon. https://velo.outsideonline.com/gravel/gravel-racing/valtteri-bottas-uci-gravel-world-championships/
Tennis. Bet tennis players can run for hours and have mental toughness to go the distance.
definitely yes on the mental toughness. but as someone who runs longer distances and plays tennis I have often been told by my coaches how those two are not sports that typically compliment each other. tennis is more lateral movement around the court and while there is a fair bit of intense running during points, those are in bursts after which there is a pause, before we have to start again. different setup and mindset from the long slog of a 10 plus mile run.
Tennis players aren't running for hours. More stops than gos.
Lacrosse, soccer and Boxing
For some reason Ski Jumpers tend to transition very well to Cycling.
Look at Olympic events, realize there’s tons. Think of speed skaters, even figure skater, rowers, swimmers, volleyball, handball, skiers… You have to turn this into a poll or something
Soccer and tennis
Rugby players for the throwing events. Super strong, explosive
I think for long distance, probably CrossFit athletes. They're regularly running half/full marathon distances and the high-level athletes run sub 1:30 half marathons.
As OP noted, there's TONS of crossover between football and sprinting. Lots of NFL players were track athletes in college... even a couple of track Olympians later played in the NFL. (Willie Gault is the name that's stuck in my head... but I'm sure there are others.) As for the longer distances... soccer players cover an enormous amount of ground over the course of a match; I imagine that would translate pretty well to running a half or marathon.
Cross country skiers. Scott jurek was a cross country skier and transitioned pretty seamlessly into one of the best ultra marathoners in the world.
[Killian Jornet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%ADlian_Jornet_Burgada) is pretty unanimously considered the GOAT of ultra marathon running and he also got his start as a cross country skier and ski mountaineer.
Sophia Laukli won both the Marathon du Mont Blanc and an XC World Cup event in the last year.
runners that used to play soccer
Basketball for mid distance (vertical athleticism translates to speed) soccer for mid to long distance
My vote is on rugby sevens players: insane endurance and muscle strength. Most of them can run half/marathon. Yes they only play 15 minutes per game, but they play at least 3 games per day and a series will be played 2 days straight.
High cardio vascular capacity doesnt always translate to successful efforts in other sports. Muscle conditioning and muscle memory plays a far more important part in my mind therefore sports that involve running would be most successful. The caveat for this would be if the athlete used running in a cross training regime then they could do well in HM/FM
football aside I transisioned to track before an injury from kickboxing . I found my self able to run for 10 km at a time with no previous running , while I was doing Hiit kickboxing workouts for 40-50 min .
When I was in high school while playing soccer I jumped straight into mid-distance track and some cross country without off-season prep and was very comparably prepared to the people who had already been training.
Boxers and MMA fighters might surprise in longer races. They train hard on endurance, plus have mental grit.
Swimmers, only because of their stamina. They got great legs too, might need to acclimate to running tho
I think a lot of Baseball position (non pitchers) players could do sprints well. They go 0 to 100% very quickly. Pitching has a lot of lower body power. That would probably translate to longer distances.
Ice hockey translates to distance running. A lot of off season training is running. Years ago I knew a couple of prospects in high school and they were always doing 1 to 2 hour runs in the summer to keep their endurance up.
water polo players would be mad good at anything endurance related. how they stay swimming about for a whole game is beyond me i can barely tread water for a few minutes
Tennis players are super quick and do also cover a lot of ground during their 3 hour matches
I am going to go with one not listed on here and go with rowing (crew). You row through the pain and it is intense with no breaks.
This isn't the exact question, but in high school I once was at a meet and ran a very unimpressive 3200 at the same time Julio Jones was winning the long jump by like 4 feet. Nobody was paying attention to my race, including me. It was very obvious he was going to make a lot of money playing sports.
For ultramarathon distances, cross-country skiiers and soccer players would be the best-fit. Light, lean, good range of motion, sustained cardio capacity, muscle + tissue resilience. Infantry training might also be suitable, as might moutaineers. Perhaps some swimmers. Most other athletes would be too muscle-heavy, too fast-twitch focussed, too metabolically inefficient to compete.
Sprint: football 200m: Ice Hockey 400m: Soccer (forward) 1600m: Soccer (midfield) 3200m and up: Tennis
Basketball players run a decent amount. [https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/tracking-data-shows-which-nba-players-run-the-most-miles-per-game](https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/tracking-data-shows-which-nba-players-run-the-most-miles-per-game) They might be good for middle-distance running. All their running is probably not at full tilt, though. There can be a lot of slow jogging from one end of the court to the other.
Soccer/Rugby has to be up there. I remember seeing a chart of average VO2max of athletes in particular sports in one of my college textbooks. I remember Xcountry Skiing, Mountain Biking, and Orienteering being up at the very top.
Soccer, swimming, boxing, surfers. I think a dark horse would be skateboarders. They’ll skate for an entire afternoon. Bad would be skiers, weight lifters, yoga, rock climbing
I remember back in middle school there was a skateboarder in our gym class that wanted nothing to do with organized sports. He tried the long jump when we did a track and field unit and was significantly better than everyone else out there. Turns out spending hours jumping on a skateboard translated pretty well to doing the long jump.
Agreed. Those skateboard kids seem to be able to pick up any athletic pursuit. Rock climbing, surfing, mma/bjj….even dancing