The town may only have a population of just over 11,400 - but that doesn't stop us punching well above their weight throughout all the Central West sporting competitions.

Take 2021, for example.

The Spacemen, Cobras, Boars and Panthers were all primed to go deep into finals, and the Boars have already been announced as premiers, after Central West Rugby Union canned the rest of the competition.

The men's Premier League Hockey side made the finals before bowing out, while the women finished just one spot outside - despite their youthful age and talented underage NSW hockey representatives are being produced by the bucket load.

They are all good sides, and fantastic ambassadors for our town, and they are also full of skilled individual athletes.

How does one decide who Parkes' top individual athlete is, though?

With a competition, of course!

Does anyone remember the TV show, Australia's Greatest Athlete, which first aired in 2009 was sponsored by Rexona?

In the three editions of the show, which were won by league gun Billy Slater, hulking Ironman Shannon Eckstein and union star Quade Cooper respectively; athletes from a number of different codes competed against in each in a huge variety of both skill and athletic-based challenges that favoured no single type of person specificially.

For example, in the last edition of the show, canoeist Ken Wallace came out on top in the bench press despite conceding a lot of size to the football players because of his strength relative to his bodyweight.

Quade Cooper was crowned as the winner giving he performed admirably across the rugby, bench press, beach sprint, kicking, rowing and basketball competitions -

It was kind of like a sports-code version of a the modern decathlon, in which Australian Ash Maloney recently won a medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

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Crowning Parkes' greatest athlete isn't just a pipedream, either.

Adam Parker, one of the key driving forces behind the establishment of the Parkes Cobras and owner of school physical education provider Exergames, is very keen to get this off the ground.

You could hold the competition in the winter sport lull period in January, with local businesses sponsoring each individual challenge.

A competition launch, and post-competition presentation would be an easy way to support a local pub, and prizemoney could potentially be tied to the individual's club or a charity of their choice.

Parker reckons it could be a win-win situation for all those involved.

"It would be a fantastic way for clubs and individuals to engage with the community, and a great way to support local businesses," said Parker.

"It would also be a good way for all the sporting clubs to continue to evolve and present themselves as attractive options through the performances of their individual athletes.

"For example, some people might not have much of an idea of how fit one of the Parkes Panthers AFL players would be, and good running performance might show players in other codes how tough they are."

It's a fun concept to think of, particularly with none of our footy codes playing at the moment due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Parker took a stab at a few options for challenges:

As fellow sports-nuts, the Parkes Champion Post would love to see a few skill challenges throw in.

There are plenty of talented athletes in Parkes that excel across a number of codes, or really excel at one code in particular.

Take Parkes Cobras captain Brent Tucker for example.

'Tuck' is a silky smooth player and an accomplished cricket, football and AFL player who has represented the region, and town, with distinction for a number of years.

Parker reckons Jayden Wirth and Will Searl have phenomenal aerobic capacities, while Parker himself excels as a footballer and cricketer, despite his advanced age (just kidding)!

Parkes Spacemen five eighth Jack Creith is one of the top players in the Group 11 competition, and has performed at the elite level through his time in the Canberra Raiders system.

Luke Bevan is a superstar for the Boars, while Mitch Stubberfield is an non-stop energizer bunny for the Panthers.

Who do you reckon would come out on top?

You might find out one day soon.

Watch this space.

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