UPDATE: Congrats to local multisport athlete Mike Pigg on an impressive victory in one of the most highly competitive Humboldt Approved polls ever. Since he won, we’re sure he wouldn’t mind if we mentioned that, um, if you’re in the market for a new home …

PREVIOUSLY: All Past Humboldt Approved Winners

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Congratulations again to the local population of Pacific Giant Salamanders who last week were named Humboldt’s “Best Native Animal” species. Local amphibianophiles spoke. The rest of us will cope. 

Moving from slimy to sculpted, this week, LoCO‘s Humboldt Approved division is combining forces with the LoCO Sports department in the hopes of answering this pressing question: Who is Humboldt County’s best all-time athlete? Should be a toughie.

What metrics factor into “best” when it comes to gauging an athlete’s supremacy? Damned if we know. We like to keep it vague/dumb on purpose ‘round here so y’all can hash it out. Fastest? Strongest? Most-inspiring? Most paycheck zeros? Your call, upvoters! 

As always, please follow freaking directions so that your vote will actually matter:

To vote, look through the comments of this Humboldt Approved poll. If someone has already nominated the answer you would give for this week’s category, click the upvote arrow. If you don’t see your desired Humboldt Approved answer nominate it in a comment for others to upvote. (Please be careful to not duplicate answers; redundant answers will be deleted and potential associated upvotes will be lost.) Feel free to make your case by replying to/cheering on the answer you love most, but again the number by the arrows on the initial nomination is what counts.

You can vote for as many nominees as you deem worthy but, of course, the more you do that the more watered down your initial vote becomes. That’s math.

We reserve the right to delete superfluous/lame comments that make the voting/comment section hard to sift through. Please try not to get offended when your comment battle reply is deleted. We’re trying to do something here.

While many weeks we look for two winners — one winner from the metropolises of Eureka and Arcata, and one from Humboldt’s smaller communities — due to the nature of this category, this time we’re gonna limit it to one. Voting closes next Friday at noon and soon after a winner will be declared.

Now tell us who is Humboldt’s sportiest!

Fortunately for Humboldt’s athlete population, the above feline was born in Mendocino County. Dunking Cat FTW!