athlete
Sign in to savethumb|Jim Thorpe at the [[1912 Summer Olympics]]
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An athlete is a person who participates in sports or physical competitions, often at high levels of skill and training. Athletes matter because they represent human physical achievement and serve as cultural figures who inspire others and compete in events that entertain and unite communities.
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8 sectionsContents
- Definitions
- Physiology
- Genes
- Titles
- Honorific epithets
- Superlatives
- See also
- References
thumb|Jim Thorpe at the [[1912 Summer Olympics]]
An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track and field and marathon runners but excluding e.g. swimmers, footballers or basketball players. However, in other contexts (mainly in the United States) it is used to refer to all athletics (physical culture) participants of any sport. For the latter definition, the word sportsperson or the gendered sportsman or sportswoman are also used. A third definition is also sometimes used, meaning anyone who is physically fit regardless of whether they compete in a sport.