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theLoop
climber
Northwest Montana
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Let us not forget Joan Benoit.
Her 1979 win of the Boston Marathon was legendary knocking off 8 minutes from the record... I love that footage, she was minutes in front of the lead pack with nobody thinking she'd hold the pace!
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Bruce Lee was relatively talented, an ideal star for Hollywood, but nowhere in the same league as far less known martial artists who were utterly humble and removed, and out in another realm of comprehension, such as Ono and Oshima... No one in the climbing world has come close to the kind of training to which these men dedicated themselves for countless years.
I really don't like these kinds of threads, because it implies that the "most radical" was the best, or the example we should want to follow, or such. There are countless individuals with very personalized gifts and abilities, and we should appreciate each person in his or her own way, much as we appreciate the great artists. We don't say, "Rembrandt was more rad than Da Vinci..." They were different. Comparisons tend to negate the notion of individuality. Comparisons always fall short, as well, because let's face it. A serious martial artist would mop the floor with Reinhold, and Reinhold would survive at altitude far easier than Mohammed Ali, and Lynn Hill wouldn't do so well against the great Sumo wrestlers, and so on and so on. I've taken world class gymnasts climbing, and usually they weren't too good. Likewise, a good rock climber might find it difficult to approach the current 100-dash record. We should admire the gifts and talents and achievements of people in general, taking also into account that some people might be achieving quite a lot if they have no talent to begin with. I always thought some of the best climbers were those who turned climbing into a relatively high art, in relationship to where they started, but they would not line up against the great achievers who had more of a gift and more to give the art. But comparing and trying to make a list of who was the most this or most that is really very uninspiring and negates the good and great that can or might be found in a whole lot of people.
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Bart Fay
Social climber
Redlands, CA
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O.K. Oli. You blew the buz.
But, Picasso was way radder than Di Vinci.
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