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/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/Eyre_Guitar_Solo 2d 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/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/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/teddy_tesla ​ 4d ago

magically cloned into their peak physical form

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u/YourCummyBear 4d ago

I was agreeing with you lol.

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u/mikeymo1741 3d ago

Jimmy the Greek is in this sub

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u/DudeEngineer 4d ago

It's because pre 1970 D1 is just not in the same leage with like post 80s. The first sub 4.4 40 wasn't until 2006.

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u/theguineapigssong 4d ago

Deion Sanders ran a 4.27 40 at the 1989 NFL combine.

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u/TurboRadical 3d ago

bro just asked AI and trusted the answer

For a long time, the official NFL combine tracker website only listed results from 2006 onward. I am 100% sure that's why the AI gave you the answer that it did, but there were likely hundreds of recorded sub 4.4s before 2006.