r/whowouldwin • u/retired-tweeter • 4d ago
Battle All 47 US Presidents are running against each other in a 40 yard dash. Who wins?
Every U.S. President is magically cloned into their peak physical form, dropped onto a football field, and lined up for a 40-yard dash. Who ya got?
Favorites:
JFK: 2 sport college athlete, plus military training. Swam 3.5 miles towing an injured soldier with a bad back.
Gerald Ford: Another strong military background who was a two-way football player at Michigan.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Extensive military career, who played halfback at west point until his injury. Guessing he was a little fast even in segregated times
Barack Obama: Gonna get a lot of votes here probably as one of the only presidents we've seen in action playing an athletic sport, but no athletic background, so you know, can't give him too much credit
Donald Trump: In doing my 20 minutes worth of research, I came across this quote from a Ted Levine in 2015 (In an article about Trump running in 2016 so...take that as you will) "He was just the best, a good athlete, a great athlete," Levine said. "He could have probably played pro ball as a pitcher. I think he threw 80 miles an hour.... He was physically and mentally gifted." So there's that (Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-high-school-classmates-what-he-was-like-2015-10)
All in All, I'd lean Gerald Ford. JFK had injury issues so who knows what his "prime" would have been athletically. Maybe at absolute peak and health, JFK could win, but I'm going with the 2-way football player from Michigan.
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u/PenisMcFartPants 4d ago
Definitely not FDR
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u/CowboySoothsayer 4d ago
Before he caught polio, FDR was very physically fit and strong.
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u/dunnylogs 4d ago
Abe had that long stride. Maybe not in the 40, but if it was longer I might take time.
Slick Willy was a college halfback?!?! If true it almost has to be him.
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u/TheShadowKick 4d ago
Tall people actually don't seem to have an advantage in distance running. A long stride is only one factor in how fast you can run. Tall people also have more weight to move and worse heat management.
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u/periodmoustache 4d ago
Is a 40yd dash 'distance running'?
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u/TheShadowKick 4d ago
I was responding to the above poster saying "maybe not in the 40, but if it was longer..."
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u/superspacetrucker 4d ago
Usain Bolt is unusually tall for a sprinter, he seems to be the exception to the rule.
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u/leasthoodinthehood 3d ago
And Bolt's 40 was not great. It was average for an Olympic sprinter. It was his top end that that was leagues ahead.
Su Bingtian, who is only 5'8", holds the world record for the 40 meters, but drops off after that with his short strides.
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u/superspacetrucker 3d ago
I remember Donovan Bailey was similar. He was tall, slower to average start, but picked up more speed the second half of his races.
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u/lone-lemming 4d ago
Had that long stride and was a soldier in a time of marching through the mountains for months at a time. In a marathon he’d crush it. Might be a solid pick for the 40 yard dash too.
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u/gunner7517 4d ago
Lincoln was apparently a good wrestler in his youth. I’d say it’s a sport that takes good cardio and explosive strength. Abe really does have a good chance here i’d say.
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u/TotallyNotACook 4d ago
Good’s an understatement. Over 300 documented wins and only 1 documented loss. He was literally a certified champion. May not help him in the 40 yard dash but he was one of the most athletic presidents ever.
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u/ZerconFlagpoleSitter 4d ago
Ford was a center and linebacker it’s not him. I’m going JFK
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u/Larang5716 4d ago
Wasn't Clinton a running back?
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u/spikebrennan 4d ago
Richard Nixon was a tackle.
Ronald Reagan was a lineman
Joe Biden was a really good wide receiver at the high school level
George W Bush played high school ball for his prep school but I don’t know what position
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u/theguineapigssong 4d ago
W was noted as a very fast runner during his Presidency, to the point it was a hassle for his security detail to keep up with him during his runs. If the race were held for Presidents DURING their Presidency, he's definitely the winner
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u/fl4tsc4n 4d ago
W has also got SHARP reflexes. Mf dodges shoes like a pro at 50+
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u/YourCummyBear 4d ago
Didn’t he run a pretty fast marathon (for his age) too in the 90s?
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u/Loretta-West 4d ago
TIL you could form quite a good presidential football team.
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u/Thecramosreddit 4d ago
It might be Joe Biden then because playing wr in a state that had a population of over 11 million in 1961 means he was no slouch.
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u/YourCummyBear 4d ago
Anyone can play sports in high school. It doesn’t mean you’re any good.
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u/RegularJoe62 4d ago
True, but that's one of the fastest positions on the field.
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u/MrAmishJoe 3d ago
Were talking highschool though. Source ..I was high school reciever. Even started some games. I never broke a 5 second 40
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u/foxlight92 4d ago
I remember reading somewhere (like 10+ years ago) that Clinton used to jog a lot, at least during his presidency. I was pretty young when he was in office but, for some reason, that bit of info stuck with me.
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u/Dewgong_crying 4d ago
He would run to McDonald's, and he got shit for it because of the high calorie meal but he wanted to set an image as an average Joe.
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u/foxlight92 4d ago
I think that's also what I read - he'd jog with the Secret Service to McDonald's. Hell, at least he tried to get some physical activity during a period of his life that he probably didn't have a whole lot of free time. IIRC, he was quite... Humble as compared to other executive branch leaders we may have had.
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u/Dewgong_crying 4d ago
Yeah, I remember getting news magazines for kids in the 90s at school and seeing it.
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u/spikebrennan 3d ago
Carter jogged too (but not particularly quickly)- fishing was more his style.
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u/theguineapigssong 4d ago
He was frequently photographed jogging; I'm old enough to remember that.
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u/TheOriginalJBones 4d ago
He used to jog around downtown Little Rock. My high school algebra teacher accidentally whacked him with his truck mirror.
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u/lukkynumber 4d ago
You’re saying you don’t think he was fast, because he didn’t play CB or WR? 😂
I don’t care what era it was, dude was a college athlete. Dude could book it, I’m quite sure. Him being 61 years old at inauguration is the reason why I doubt he’d win, not because of where he played on the gridiron.
I’d imagine this goes to JFK overall just due to age at presidency PLUS athletic background.
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u/TormundIceBreaker 4d ago
It's at their physical peak, not how old they were when they were elected. Election age would make a good Round 2 though
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u/urAllincorrect 4d ago edited 4d ago
Linebackers can be fast and gerald ford may have had a 4.6 40 time (no official records exist). Thats not slow by any means.
Edit: I fucked up and looked at a different Gerald Fords 40 time.
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u/ciddasloth 4d ago
A 4.6 would make Ford legendarily fast (Jim Brown ran a ‘legendary’ 4.5 in the 50s) for the time period. It’s much more likely he ran something in the 5.Xs, which is still extremely respectable. It’s also worth noting that nowadays guys begin to train for the 40 in high school - something Ford never would have done as the 40 yd dash wasn’t a football drill until the mid 1940s, at which point Ford had graduated law school. Because he wouldn’t have had an advantage of having trained for the event, I don’t think his football background is as helpful as it might seem at first glance.
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u/urAllincorrect 4d ago
Holy shit. I really fucked up here. I looked up Gerald Fords 40 time and it was 4.6. That all is true.
My tired ass looked up the wrong gerald ford...that 40 time was in 2014.
In sorry yall. Gotta take the L on this.
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u/DefaultUsername11442 3d ago
If he could run a 4.6 eight years after he died, imagine how fast he was in his prime.
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u/septagons 4d ago
Jfk for sure. Obama is a contender but JFK was five years younger when elected and only an inch shorter
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u/chakrablocker 4d ago
he had a bad back tho, his prime was over
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 4d ago
I say JFK comes out a head in the end.
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u/teddy_tesla 4d ago
Why is Obama a contender? We have D1 athletes in the running. Seems like everyone chooses Obama because they believe he is "naturally gifted"
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u/RegularJoe62 4d ago
I think because Obama was probably the most fit as president.
At his physical peak, Obama probably played a lot of basketball, but was never a D1 varsity athlete.
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u/SummonedShenanigans 2d ago
Dude was still smoking cigs pretty regularly while in office. A lot of people in this thread seem to think that because he likes to shoot he'd be a good sprinter.
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u/Eyre_Guitar_Solo 1d ago
I don’t know if we have good all-around fitness data, but W was almost certainly faster than Obama as President. W was quite a good runner, and would famously invite members of the press to join him, and absolutely wear them out. (I believe he has some 5K times that are a matter of public record.)
But aside from run times, this question is hard to quantify, especially once they’re in office.
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u/YourCummyBear 4d ago
He was elected young and is still fit but most people are forgetting these old white guys elected came from extremely well off backgrounds and were athletes in their youth.
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u/doylehawk 4d ago
Saying someone could have played professional baseball as a pitcher then saying “I think he threw 80” really tells me you haven’t the slightest idea of what a pro pitcher might be
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u/neksys 4d ago
A 16-17 year old throwing 80mph fastballs in 1962 would have absolutely drawn a TON of interest from MLB teams. Even now 75-85 in high school would pique some scouts attention.
I say this with A LOT OF DOUBT that Trump was throwing heaters in high school.
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u/CowboySoothsayer 4d ago
I say with no doubt that he wasn’t.
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u/Coalnaryinthecarmine 4d ago
he was physically and mentally gifted
I assume his physical gifts were about on par with his mental ones
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u/Ill_Made_Knight 4d ago
Listen man, he's highly cognitive. Woman. Fish. Elephant. Doctor nearly fell out of his chair when Trump listed those things. Never been done before. They tested Einstein once and he only got to Wom. The fact that Trump got all 3 means he's 3 times smarter than Egghead. He's on another level and has the good genes like Syndey. A lot of people are saying it.
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u/JonnyRottensTeeth 4d ago
trump was also tangentially related to an MIT professor! If great intellect is not inherited directly from your uncle, I don't know anything about basic genetics!
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u/EmptyOhNein 4d ago
Trump is less than a year from beating Kim Jong Un's "38 under" on the golf course with his current trajectory. I'd take any accomplishment he has or had with a planet full of salt.
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u/rolldamntree 4d ago
D1 schools now have basically all their guys throwing minimum mid 80s and most in the 90s. 75-80 might get you a look for a d2 school it definitely isn’t interesting pro scouts in today’s baseball
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u/confused-koala 4d ago
Thank you lol. Not quite, but nearly as asinine a comment as the one we’re (deservedly) clowning on
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u/Mrs_Crii 4d ago
He definitely wasn't. I remember reading about someone who knew him then and his baseball performance wasn't anything special.
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u/object109 4d ago
Jaime Moyers fastball topped out at like 84 and he played 20 years.
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u/Sisko4President 4d ago
“He was just the best, a good, a great athlete” sounds like when they say, “Just write what you want me to say on the rec letter.”
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u/Key-Tip-7521 4d ago
Wasn’t there a video of him firing a strike on a ceremonial first pitch many years ago?
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u/Mr_Sarcasum 4d ago
Today 10 miles higher. But we're talking about the 1960s and '70s here.
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u/JBaecker 4d ago
Tom Seaver entered USC pitching 85mph fastballs. He upped his speed to 91 by the end of his lone season in college in 1965. By the time of the 69 Mets World Series he had multiple recorded 100mph fastballs. Some pitchers might get looked at if they were throwing 80 in high school but you had to be mid-80s for good college programs to notice you even back then.
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u/PoopSmith87 4d ago
I'm going Lincoln
Abe was an athletic monster. His wrestling dominance (which was more like bareknuckle MMA with almost no rules) is well documented, his feats of strength are legendary... less celebrated but still known, is that he also loved a good foot race. Give him good running shoes, and I bet his insane fast twitch muscle has him smoking a 40.
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u/FrankSinatraYodeling 4d ago
Wrestling is arguably the most physically demanding collegiate sport. I suspect the guy had some freakish ability.
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u/versusChou 4d ago
Wrestling is up there, but I don't think anything beats water polo.
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u/agentdb22 4d ago
Have you heard of Badminton?
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u/versusChou 3d ago
Water polo you're treading water or swimming the entire time. When you swim, you're sprinting. You're being punched, kicked, grappled and scratched underwater. Badminton may have a lot of hard cuts and sprinting, but at least you can catch your breath. Water polo, even when you're "resting", you're treading water.
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u/agentdb22 3d ago
Yeah, but you're forgetting how in badminton, if the match goes on for too long, they have to fight The Winged Dragon of Ra with nothing but their shuttlecocks and racquets
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u/versusChou 3d ago
Well that depends on how Ra was summoned. If they don't pay their lifepoints, the thing has 0 attack and defense.
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u/agentdb22 3d ago
Yes, but The Winged Dragon of Ra has a secret effect, that if you recite the ancient chant, it has essentially infinite attack and defence, cannot be destroyed by any means, and prevents essentially every card from being summoned.
(My entire knowledge of Yu-Gi-Oh comes from a single SolidJJ skit)
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u/Cold_Buy_2695 4d ago
"He was just the best, a good athlete, a great athlete," Levine said. "He could have probably played pro ball as a pitcher. I think he threw 80 miles an hour.... He was physically and mentally gifted.
Given the cult like levels of glazing they do to Trump, do you really believe for a second that any of that is true?
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u/Sad_Anybody5424 4d ago
Slate did a deep dive into this: Was Donald Trump Good at Baseball?
You will be shocked to learn that Trump has a history of telling outrageous lies about his past as an athlete. He was a competent HS baseball player, but there was zero chance he could have played D1 baseball, let alone signed a pro contract.
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u/MarhabanAnaAndy 4d ago
Only tangentially related, but Trump’s views on exercise in general are pretty entertaining. He apparently believes that the human body has “finite energy” and exercising exhausts it, leading to early death. I can’t recall who it was, but one of his aides mentioned that his son was doing an iron man and Trump responded “he’s taking years off his life”
He apparently walks as little as possible and will literally hop in a golf cart to go 20 feet.
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4d ago
George W Bush is likely the best overall runner on the list. I can't say for certain how well that would hold up in the 40 yard dash. He likely wouldn't be explosive enough for something that short. I think I would have to lean Gerald Ford. He played collegiate football at a much higher level than JFK did and lineman are often very quick sprinters.
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u/SwarleymonLives 4d ago
Teddy Roosevelt. Easily. Dude was famous for his athletics.
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u/eyedoc11 4d ago
Wasn't he asthmatic?
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u/Professional_Pen4628 4d ago
Yeah but that's what makes him a badass. some people don't believe it but he basically went full protagonist mode.
“When I was growing up I had to make my body. It was not naturally strong. I was a sickly and timid boy. One of my memories is of my father saying to me: ‘You have the mind, but you have not the body. Without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. You must make your body.’ And I made it.”
From then on, young Roosevelt threw himself into what he called the strenuous life. He built a home gym, lifted weights, boxed, hiked, rode horses, swam in cold water, and pushed himself into physically demanding activities.
from his Auto, then historians
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u/TrexPushupBra 4d ago
So was my grandfather.
Didn't stop him from signing up to fight the Nazis by becoming a paratrooper and machine gunner.
After lying to get in he later was the only one in his unit mobile at the battle of the bulge. He carried the two man machine gun around and had effective fire.
He got the silver star for it.
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u/According-Item-2306 4d ago
George HW was a star college baseball player… 40 yards is close to a base run
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u/enunymous 4d ago
Can't believe I had to scroll through so many comments to get to this point. I think too many people think of him as an old man instead of an athlete and fighter pilot
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u/Connect-Succotash-59 4d ago
W. Bush gotta be up there pitcher and a fighter pilot, plus watch his drive.
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u/Scooter1021 4d ago
Also famously needed a special security detail for his super long runs. The man loved to run.
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u/Azfitnessprofessor 4d ago
Ford was the only one who was a D-1 athlete
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u/aflyingpiano 4d ago
Center and tackle if memory serves. Pretty strong, but I’m not sure how fast his 40 would have been…..
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u/90daysismytherapy 4d ago
While who knows how fast he was in a forty, linemen in the 30s were not huge fat guys on online, not that today’s lineman are not crazy fast for their size. Ford was 6 feet tall and probably played at around 200lbs.
Ford was also a linebacker, so mobility would have been extremely important, and he allegedly had pro offers, so he probably torches everyone as the only really dedicated elite athlete of his time.
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u/tartuffe78 4d ago
If only he didn’t have those damn bone spurs, Trump would beat them all…
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u/Larang5716 4d ago
The guy who doesn't believe in exercise and cheats at golf all the time isn't even going to be in the top 50%.
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u/Deliterman 4d ago
Grover Cleveland eats his legs and becomes a giant ball and rolls over and kills everyone and wins the race
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u/Hosni__Mubarak 4d ago
I think bush jr. still runs a few miles every day. I would vote him.
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u/TheBalrogofMelkor 4d ago
George W. Bush's security detail famously drove golf carts to guard him on runs because no one could match his pace in the heat. I agree with Dubya.
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u/realmozzarella22 4d ago
Abraham Lincoln was a zombie killer and wrestler. He has a good chance in athletic events.
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u/RennisDeynoldss 4d ago
Abe Lincoln could do it all, would beat any president in a fight or foot race
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u/oncomingstorm777 4d ago
I don’t know about 40 yd dash, but George W Bush is the only president who has completed a marathon, which he did in under 4 hours
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u/COVFEFE-4U 4d ago
George W. Bush was running marathons in his 40s, and had a sub 7 minute mile. I wouldn't count him out. Might be a close one between him and Ford.
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u/Equivalent-Wing-8124 4d ago
People all talking about the same 3 or 4 presidents from the last 50 years + FDR, but then the race will actually happen and turns out it's Martin Van Buren or John Quincy Adams beating everyone by a full second
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u/VariableBooleans 4d ago
In their prime idk. During their term, Dubya was a regular runner. I’d give it to him.
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u/imperfectalien 4d ago
If that one YouTube documentary I saw is to be believed, Washington was twelve storeys tall made of radiation, so that's like two steps for him.
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u/Dandledorff 4d ago
I like the use of "Peak physical condition" and "JFK had injuries". Also they're all magical clones. So even FDR is in the running, literally. My guess is Lincoln.
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u/Patient-Expert-1578 4d ago
Im assuming including trump on that list is done ironically. I mean, he had bone spurs so he couldn’t run…..
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u/DankMaster69_420 4d ago
I kinda feel like a lot of y'all are saying Trump would lose because you just don't like him and not because of what he's done. He was a three sport athlete at New York Military Academy and played on the football team; that should put him a fair bit above most of the other Presidents. Not that he would win obviously, comes down to Roosevelt(you know which one) and Eisenhower by a huge margin.
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u/CowboySoothsayer 4d ago
George Washington was incredibly fit and strong in his youth. Lincoln was, too. George H.W. was a gifted athlete; Kennedy was too. Gerald Ford was a D1 athlete. I don’t know who would win a race, but if it were a fight, I’d bet the farm on Lincoln. Lincoln was a frontier wrestling champion and legend says he won over 300 matches with only one loss (most assuredly exaggerated, but his reputation is still impressive).
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u/PotentiallySarcastic 3d ago
Everyone discounting Washington clearly has not read his biography by Chernow.
Dude was a freak. A warlord at any earlier time in history.
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u/Mybrandnewhat 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah I’m going with Washington. Long legs with those stacked calves. I bet he could get these buckles moving quick. At 6’2” 210lbs he’s the size of a modern prototype WR.
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u/GamemasterJeff 4d ago
Trump had bone spurs, so he nopes out of the race, says he won and goes off to cheat at golf.
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u/ArmagedonThunderbird 4d ago
I’m going with George Washington, the Father of our country. I’ve read he was a great athlete from different historical sources.
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u/FrankSinatraYodeling 4d ago
"Honest Abe, the Railsplitter" needs a nod. A 6'4" Wrestler is going to bring some elite athleticism to the table. I think he stuns the crowd.
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u/apatheticviews 4d ago
I’m not on board with “peak physical form” only because of changes in modern nutrition.
Let’s assume it’s on day 1of their presidency.
That’s going to give a huge speed advantage to the youngest guys which are Teddy, Obama, and JFK.
JFK had severely damaged his back in WWII, so I think he’s out.
I’m leaning towards Obama mainly because of modern nutrition and he was in very good shape.
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u/arealmcemcee 4d ago
I'm going with John Quincy Adams. He was an avid swimmer. The question was regarding speed, not strength. So, I'm going with the swimmer.
I'm also assuming bare feet over a grassy field.
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u/Kenpachizaraki99 4d ago
I feel like teddy might be a sleeper pick buddy did everything you could think off
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u/Lopsided_Beautiful_1 4d ago
3-way between JFK, Ford, and Obama. I think Obama wins in 40 year dash.
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u/manchvegasnomore 4d ago
Dwight D. Eisenhower was a college running back. Physical prime he's winning.