Are famous gymnasts epic heroes?

[gymgirl1129]

We have a project for english class about epic heroes so I'm thinking of Shawn Johnson, Alicia Sacramone, Jonathan Hortan (world famous gymnasts). Do they have qualities of an epic hero. Some other epic heroes from stories are Achillies, Odysseus, and Beowulf.

I'm not sure this is in the right forum cause its my first post, but any opinions are appreciated!

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Epic heroes are usually from early works of literature, like the three you mentioned. I guess you could talk about somebody like A-Sac or Svetlana Khorkina or, especially, Oksana Chusunovita because the length of her career puts her in the epic category. You could talk about her career as a journey, facing various obstacles, etc. This page might help Epic (genre) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"You know who's a hero? Hiro. From Heroes." - The Office