Best Athletes Ever

I've been pondering this for a moment. Spending many evenings sitting along the soccer pitch as my girls practice has given me the opportunity to see children and Mothers interact. I watch as little toddlers explore the playground under the watchful eyes of their Mothers. As my athletic girls run drills I began to think about female athletes and how often they are overlooked. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a small boy, about 2 years old wandering into the path of an older child on a swing. Just when I thought the little guy was going to get knocked down his Mother swooped in not unlike a superhero saving her son from injury. I have no idea where she was but she was not close or within my view line. That to me was amazing. It's always amazing when I witness moments like that one. I began to think about how Fall brings an athletic consciousness to society what with all the sports our children participate in and of course all those we watch on the television. There's a never ending chatter about football players of the week, the best score on goal and everything in between filling our minds with the understanding that yes, these professionals are the best athletes ever. All of those very thoughts rounded my mind. I turned to scan the pitch looking around watching all the various children playing and I asked myself who are the best athletes ever? Who? Many would say football players, hockey players, gymnasts or swimmers. As I pictured all of these athletes performing incredible successes I still couldn't shake that image of the little boy by the swing. When I think of the most skilled athletes the typical Mother comes to mind. She's not anything noticeable, an average looking build, nothing to lead you to believe she is an athlete otherwise. Underneath all that makeup, pretty shoes and that "I don't know a thing about (fill in sport here)" is a person who can make an Olympic sprinter look like a snail. Stay with me on this one. Really when else have you seen such amazing speed in a human? Picture a Mother who is in the kitchen cooking and sees her toddler falling backward off the couch towards the hardwood floor and covers 30 feet in under 3 seconds preventing her toddler's head from whacking the floor. Mothers can scoop up a child ill with stomach flu and dash across the house getting to the toilet just in time for the child to barf saving several feet of carpet from being ruined. I've seen Mothers come out of no where to catch a child falling off playground equipment. I've seen a Mother catch a mug full of coffee midair seconds after it became the baseball her son decided to hit. These are the fantastical moments of athletic endeavors. Women all over the world have done these and many more incredible things since the beginning. Yet we are not seen as the magnificent example of perfect athleticism. We may not have ripply muscles or incredible marathon running endurance as seen in professional athletes but we have a swiftness no other athlete can replicate. Next time someone asks me who my favorite athlete is, I think I'll say "My Mom."