Men’s Health apparently named 18-time gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps the “Fittest Man of All-time” without even considering the shirtless men of OlympicTalk as an option. For shame, publication.
But even though we’re slightly offended, we’d like to offer our congratulations to the swimming legend. It’s yet another great honor to complete his career, and we’ll admit he probably would have gotten our vote, too. Now we’ll wait to see what 60 years of retirement golf does to his fittest of forms.
The 99 men behind Phelps include four decathletes, four cyclists, three Dream Teamers, eight sprinters, way too many football players, and only one gymnast (really?). There’s also action stars like Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Lee, lots of possible steroid use, and surprisingly only one James Bond – Daniel Craig at No. 50 (Brosnan was robbed).
Notable Olympians included Edwin Moses (No. 99), Mark Spitz (No. 88), Michael Johnson (No. 79), Usain Bolt (No. 59), Greg Louganis (No. 54), Paavo Nurmi (No. 36), Carl Lewis (No. 31), Bruce Jenner (No. 23), and, for Winter Games fans, cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie (#10). Check out the slideshow here.
One notable omission was London 2012 heartthrob Ryan Lochte, who failed to place in the top 100. Our math says that puts him at least 81 spots behind fitness guru Richards Simmons, who came in at No. 20.