Athlete (track and field)

An athlete (American and British English) or sportsman or sportswoman (British English) is a person who is good at a sport and competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed or endurance. The term's application to those who participate in other activities, such as horse riding or driving, is somewhat controversial.

Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen.

The word "athlete" is a romanization of the Greek: άθλητὴς, athlētēs, one who participates in a contest; from ἄθλος, áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, a contest or feat. The primary definition of "sportsman" according to Webster's Third Unabridged Dictionary (1960) is, "a person who is active in sports: as (a): one who engages in the sports of the field and especially in hunting or fishing." Athletes involved in isotonic exercises have an increased mean left ventricular end-diastolic volume and are less likely to be depressed. Due to their strenuous physical activities, athletes are far more likely than the general population to visit massage salons and pay for services from massotherapists and masseurs. Athletes whose sport espouses endurance more than strength usually have a lower calorie intake than other athletes.

An "all-around athlete" is a person who competes in multiple sports at a high level. Examples of people who played numerous sports professionally include Jim Thorpe, Lionel Conacher, Deion Sanders, Danny Ainge and Babe Zaharias. Others include Ricky Williams, Bo Jackson, and Damon Allen, each of whom was drafted both by Major League Baseball and by professional gridiron football leagues such as the NFL and the CFL. Japanese athletes such as Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita, Masakatsu Funaki and Naoya Ogawa have successfully competed in both professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.

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