5 Olympic Events Animals Could Easily Win (Slideshow)

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If animals competed in the Olympics (not exactly like the sheep in the “meadow scene” of the Opening Ceremony on Friday night), we humans would not stand a chance of winning any medals. Citing the Olympic motto of citius, altius, fortius (faster, higher, stronger) in an article in Veterinary Review, Craig Sharp of the Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Brunel University in London, observes that “if we allowed the rest of the animal kingdom into the Games … we could not offer much competition!”

Humans’ one advantage is that we can be a sort of “Jack of all sports. Sharp tells Agence France-Presse that humans simply can’t compete with animals in any sorts of physical events such as running or swimming. Aside from “technically-aided sports” such as tennis, Sharp says that what we are good at is “being really versatile; we can sprint, we can run long distances, we can jump, we can swim, we can lift weights” and so would do well in a “sort of decathlon of swimming, running, jumping, lifting.”

Here’s some human/animal athlete match-ups.

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Photo by mytmoss

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Kathy P.

7:40AM PDT on Oct 4, 2012

pretty awesome really

October 4
send a green star

Dawn F.

3:03PM PDT on Aug 1, 2012

Cats have to be on the top of my favorite animals!

August 1
send a green star

3:01PM PDT on Aug 1, 2012

Amazing-Beautiful!!!

Frederik D.

4:13AM PDT on Jul 31, 2012

You forgot one very important olympic discipline, cuteness. Imo the gold medal goes to cats! :)

July 31
send a green star

Mary J.

3:07AM PDT on Jul 31, 2012

fun facts

Mandy H.

2:41AM PDT on Jul 31, 2012

Lol the truth is if it wasn't for the fact that human beings are very good at inventing things(especially ways to kill from a safe distance) we would have LONG died out in the wild. Just think about that Mr I'm Head Of The Food Chain race!
Go the animals!

Ruth R.

11:10PM PDT on Jul 30, 2012

Wonders!