I believe jockeys and car drivers are NOT athletes in same class as other true sports. They simply sit and steer. Even golfers exhibit FAR more athletic skills.
To glorify jockeys and drivers as athletes is an insult to real atheletes.
Just my .02
Although I'm not into horse racing I have met a few jockies ... without exception they are in great physical condition, wiry, and very strong. As far as Grand Prix and NASCAR drivers are concerned they have to have great concentration and co-ordination in order to win.
Can’t speak to race care drivers, but no jockey just sits and steers! I’ll take it you haven’t done much riding...
Jockeys are great athletes. Try being a 120 lb. man or woman, just trying to sit on a 1000lb. animal going 40 mph. Now try directing that animal or trying to pull him up if he doesn’t want to. Now try doing that in a field of five, with those other animals bumping in to you or running up behind you, etc. Now try doing that in a field of twenty.
That jockey’s life is on the line every minute.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
I don’t know anything about race car driving- but I’d be willing to bet if you rode a race horse, even a slow one at training speed you would get a new appreciation for the athleticism of jockeys. They do far more than just sit there. Great, and even good jockeys have to be in top physical condition- and have to be mentally smart (lot of strategy involved to work out in very short time) and mentally tough. It is one of those jobs that is not
anywhere near as easy as the good ones make it look.
I once rode a friend's 2 yr old colt that was being trained for the track in a racing saddle and tried to gallop in the position that jockeys ride in. My thigh muscles were screaming within a few seconds, and I have ridden all my life. It is much, much harder than it looks.
about jockey Bill Shoemaker:
“In fact, Joe Harper was once having dinner with an orthopedic surgeon who worked on many athletes in Southern California including some from the Los Angeles Rams (NFL) and the Lakers. He performed surgery on Shoemaker’s broken leg after a spill at Santa Anita and the doctor told Harper that the jockey was in the best shape out of any athlete he had ever cut into.
“He said it took him longer to cut through the muscles on Bill Shoemaker than it did any other athlete he had worked on,” said Harper. “Here’s a guy who was comparing apples to oranges, you would think. But a leg is a leg and there is Bill coming out on top.”
Also Time magazine did an article on athletes years ago, that listed being a jockey as the #1 most dangerous athletic profession