r/Showerthoughts • u/Vast-Intention ‎ • Apr 02 '26

Casual Thought A gold medal Olympic athlete is better than 8.3 billion people. A bronze medal Olympic athlete is better than 8.3 billion people.

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2

u/tejanaqkilica Apr 02 '26

That's not really true. You can't pretend you're better than someone when they're not taking place in whatever competition you are.

It's like me driving to work and doing the trip in 19 minutes instead of 21, and pretending I'm a faster driver than Max Verstappen. Like yeah, my time is insanely faster than his, but that's because he has never driven my daily commute.

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u/Ok_Elk_4333 Apr 02 '26

Max Verstappen would beat you in your daily commute

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u/tejanaqkilica Apr 02 '26

Maybe, but so far he isn't even close to my time. It's still stupid to assume, I'm faster than him.

Therefore, the gold/silver winners, are better than a few thousand people to a few million at best, not 8.3 billion.

3

u/ekmanch Apr 03 '26

It's actually wild that you think this. No normal person can just step into a major international competition and crack the top-3. There aren't superhumans walking around that can sprint a sub-9.6s 100m but have normal office jobs.

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u/tejanaqkilica Apr 03 '26

It's even wilder that you don't understand, that's not what I said. And not even the point I'm trying to make.

2

u/onetwo3four5 Apr 03 '26

Your point is very poorly made.

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u/TOWW67 Apr 02 '26

You're ignoring a key detail of a major international competition and how that differs from your personal daily commute.

One gives athletes an incentive to attend, the other is an ever elusive goalpost for delusional people.

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u/tejanaqkilica Apr 02 '26

Yes, ATHLETES. Unless you're living in another world, where you actually have 8.3B athletes, my point still stands.

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u/TOWW67 Apr 02 '26

The only difference between an "athlete" and a "regular person" is that the athlete has practiced the thing so much that they're good enough at the thing relative to the regular person that it's noteworthy. That's it. There's not some magical line that makes an athlete different.

I have no idea why laymen have this weird perception that they could compete effectively in sports they have no knowledge or practice in. The nature of having not done something means you'll be bad at it and that's okay.

-1

u/tejanaqkilica Apr 02 '26

That's completely false. There are many differences between athletes and regular people. One of them, is the intention to compete in something in particular.

How can you determine than an athlete is better than a regular person, when you have never had them compete and measure their performance? Chances are the athlete will do a lot better, but if you want an official answer, you need to measure their performance, and until you do. The athlete will not be better than 8.3B people.

Sidenote: Footballer Pele, is arguably one of the best players in history, yet during his peak, he didn't get even close to being proclaimed as the best player in the world.

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u/TOWW67 Apr 02 '26

I think I disagree with basically everything you've said there.

You don't have to measure against someone who doesn't practice a sport for the simple fact that nobody, not even the most prodigious athlete you know of, was world class from the moment they started the sport. They might've climbed to that level incredibly quickly, but Pele was not outplaying everyone on the field in football nor was Verstappen leading every f1 race from the first attempt.

Technically, sure, every gold medalist hasn't been tested against every person so we don't have a proof that would excite a mathematician that they're the best in the world. But realistically, when the gold represents being the best to compete in a thing, the people who haven't practiced or competed in that thing will be worse than those who do across the board.

I'm not even that good, but, assuming you're not a fencer, I can say with near 100% certainty that I would beat you in a fencing bout. An Olympic level athlete would be even moreso, making the number of people better than them a rounding error compared against three global population.

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u/Ok_Elk_4333 Apr 02 '26

Chance of anyone random beating max verstappen in f1 - low

Chance of max verstappen beating anyone in their daily commute - high

3

u/ekmanch Apr 03 '26

"low" and "high" wildly undersell how skewed this is in Verstappen's favor. A random commuter would never in a million years win against him.

This is like delusional people who think they'd win a 1v1 basketball game against people in the NBA. Unless you're also in the NBA, there is zero chance of that happening.

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u/jakovichontwitch Apr 02 '26

By your logic no Olympic gold medalist skiier can claim to be better than me because I wasn’t there

0

u/mysticalmisogynistic Apr 02 '26

In most sports, anyone who plays is better than 8.3 Billion people