No sport is easy. With that being said, some are definitely harder than others. So what WO sport is the hardest? 

Wrestling

According to the wrestlers, the tough practices and the physical toll of wrestling is what makes wrestling the hardest sport.

   “[Wrestling is most difficult] because you go to practice everyday and have to fight/wrestle someone for 4 hours . . . while cutting weight, while wrestling like 5 plus matches every single week,” said Sr. Keenan Montoya.

“Wrestling is the hardest sport. This is not a question. Wrestling is the hardest sport because we practice harder than any other sport, and are constantly pushing our bodies to the limit, in the wrestling room and with our in season diets. We have longer and harder practices than just about any other sport and we are constantly working all practice, there is really never any downtime. As wrestlers we have to be able to push our bodies to the limit in practice while trying to cut weight at the same time which is harder than any other sport,” said Jr. Jace Garza.

Water Polo

The constant treading of water and roughness of the game under the water is what makes water polo the hardest sport according to the polo players.

   “Most people struggle to stay above water most of the time. We tread with 10 pound belts of sand that drag us down while we try and maintain our elbows out of the water. It’s really hard on your legs. [While] scrimmaging, we are constantly being pulled down and wrestling the other opponent, we still have to tread ourselves up and them as well,” said Sr.  Gabe Moura.

“Water Polo is the hardest sport hands down. You have to stay above water, treading water, for minutes on end [while brawling] when you get the ball, not to mention what goes on under the water. There is no [referee] in or under the water, so pretty much anything goes under water [like] scratching, clawing, and even punching under water. After all that, you have to keep swimming. I don’t think many people [who] don’t play Water Polo could compete, let alone stay above water,” said Jr. Spencer Carl.

Swimming

The morning practices and individual drive required to succeed is what makes swimming the hardest sport according to the swimmers.

   “Swimming is the hardest sport, we have morning practices throughout the season, we swim upwards of 6000 yards (around 4 miles) each practice, then up to an hour of weights and dryland after every practice,” said Sr. Kyle Mass.

“Swimming is more of an individual sport than others, it’s not about teamwork, it’s about yourself. You have to be incredibly self motivated and work hard every single day in order to get faster. And there’s only one shot to get the time you want. You don’t get four quarters or nine innings to improve. You swim your event once during a meet and that’s it. Not to mention you can’t breathe whenever you want,” said Jr. Emeline Root.

Cross Country

The brutal schedule of running every day and long distances is what makes cross-country the hardest sport.

   “Cross-country is the hardest sport because not only do you have to be strong physically, you have to be strong mentally all the way through. In other sports, a person may get a breather and then go at it again, but a cross-country runner doesn’t have this luxury. We have to keep on running no matter how much our lungs may be screaming for us to stop. The ability to do this, to push our body for this extended period of time, takes an inner strength of the mind. We must be mentally tough and keep pushing through it all, including the pain, for however long it may take the person to run. That’s 18 minutes and 57 second long for some, and [for] others [it’s] thirty minutes of running with the pain and exhaustion that never wavers. Many people stray away from pain, but we cross-country runners embrace it and push ourselves to the limit. This is why cross-country is the hardest sport here at West Ottawa because it takes a high commitment, courage, cooperation, and strength of the mind and body to run this 3.1 mile race,” said Jr. Brianna Lee.

“We have 1-2 mile warm ups to begin with. The workouts are normally some sort of speed interval. We’ll do like three fast one mile runs and a 300m sprint, then a half mile cool down. On tough days, we do stuff like ‘the brick’, ‘the bony maronie’, ‘the Carlos asked for it’, and there’s a few others I can’t think of at the moment. ‘The brick’ is a ladder from 100m up to 800m, then another 800m and back down (which is a total of 4.5 miles of sprinting). ‘The Carlos asked for it’ is 30 200m sprints (3.75 miles of sprinting). ‘The bony maronie’ is the worst of them all. The bony maronie is 16 400m (4 miles total). Aside from the workouts, the meets are pure hell. For most varsity runners, times range from maybe 16:30 to about 19:00 flat for the last man. So for most varsity runners, it’s about 17 to 18 1/2 minutes of pushing your body to the absolute limit with no breaks,” said Jr. Alex Miller.