Is life too hard for you? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could have one superpower? These lucky people do, but with great power comes great responsibility…
Isao Machii
The world’s greatest samurai holds multiple world records, fastest 1,000 sword swings, fastest tennis ball cut in mid-air, most bamboo sliced through in one swing. The most impressive feat that this man has completed was slicing a plastic pellet the size of a bullet fired at him from 10 meters away at 200 mph.
Daniel Kish
This man has been blind since he was three-years-old, but this never stopped him from “seeing.” Kish can use echolocation, just like dolphins and other marine mammals, to build a landscape in his brain based on the sound waves bouncing off of objects. This might sound farfetched, but he is scarily accurate with it. Other blind individuals have hired him to be their “seeing ear guide.”
Karina Hollekim
Technically, anyone can do what Hollekim is doing, but less than 0.001% of the world population attempts a base jump in their lifetime. Hollekim has completed over 400 jumps in her lifetime, the most dangerous have been in urban areas, and she is looking to jump off of the Eiffel Tower as soon as she can get clearance.
Stephen Wiltshire
This man has a flawless photographic memory, and can accurately recreate intricate urban landscapes from memory after just a 20-minute helicopter ride above his city of choice. Wiltshire has autism and has struggled with communication his entire life, so he focused on honing his artistic ability through his photographic memory, His recreations sell for millions of dollars at auctions.
Wim “The Iceman” Hof
The Iceman can withstand freezing temperatures longer than anyone on Earth. He uses a Buddhist meditation technique called Tummo, where he can stabilize his blood flow and retain his body heat from the inside out. He has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in sub-zero temperatures wearing only shorts.
Dean Karnazes
This man could literally run forever. He is the only human being to ever live that has run 350 consecutive miles without stopping, not even to sleep. Karnazes is currently attempting to run one marathon every day for 50 days, which he’s mostly through. Imagine what this guy’s feet look like.
Alain Robert
This man has earned the official title of “the French Spiderman.” This 54-year-old Alpine climber free solos (climbs without a rope or safety gear) urban structures illegally simply because he wants to. He has scaled the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, and many more. This man has been arrested over 100 times, and for some reason, he hasn’t been deterred from attempting these feats.
Das Uberboy
This German baby (who’s name is being protected) was born with developed musculature, enough so that a doctor pronounced him “clinically ripped.” The extent of his potential strength is unknown, but if he is still around he would be 20-years-old.
Michel Lotito
This man was nicknamed “the human goat” because he has the ability to digest metal, glass, and even poisonous chemicals without any negative physical side effects (that he’ll admit). Lotito made it into the Guinness Book of World Records when he ate an entire freaking airplane. Now he has a career eating weird things in a strange roadshow type circus.
Several Buddhist Monks
Although it is strange to highlight an entire culture as “humans with superpowers,” some Buddhist monks have been baffling scientists with their inhuman abilities. In testing, a Buddhist monk was able to slow his metabolism by 64% through fasting and meditating, could withstand sub-zero temperatures comfortably for long periods of time, and could raise the temperature of their extremities by 17 degrees through meditation.
Yves Rossi
Rossi is the first man to successfully engineer and pilot a personal jetpack. His superpower is less physical but more mental. He trusts his invention so much that he jumps out of airplanes without a parachute almost daily, claiming it’s the only thing that makes him feel alive.
Tim Cridland
Cridland can quite possibly be the most terrifying person alive. Unlike David Blaine, who famously stabbed himself through the bicep in front of Kanye West with a surgical needle, Cridland actually does it, blood and all, no tricks. This man’s ability to tolerate pain is considered mutant, and although it has never been proven, doctors assume that Cridland does not feel pain the same way you and I do.
Matsutatsu Oyama
This man is not a movie star, although there are multiple movies made about him. Oyama is the greatest Karate master of all time and has proved himself by fighting 52 bulls to the death with his bare hands, yes actual bulls. He has also fought and killed a bear but has never killed a person. That being said, he once won 300 fights in a row at a tournament that was supposed to hold 400 fights, his opponents got so tired of fighting him and losing that they surrendered the prize to him.
Liew Thow Lin
This man was able to attach up to 79 metallic objects to his body at once. Technically, he didn’t have any actual magnetism to his skin, he just happened to be able to generate an unusually large amount of friction, allowing heavy objects to stick to him as if they were magnets.
Zhou Ting-Jue
Ting-Jue is a martial arts master and claims that he can harness his chi and make his palms heat up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Ting-Jue claims that he can cure cancers, and heal minor injuries by harnessing the victim’s chi via his own. As crazy and unprovable as this sounds, dozens of famous and important individuals have visited him and claimed that they felt better and their illnesses subsided after his healing session.
Joy Milne
Joy Milne has proven that she can smell Parkinson’s disease. You don’t believe me? Edinburgh University conducted a test in which Milne detected the scent of Parkinson’s disease on 11 out of 12 patients, without seeing them. She simply smelled an article of their clothing. Scientists believe that she can detect a specific molecular structure through scent that is unique to patients of Parkinson’s disease.
Scott Flansburg
Nicknamed the “Human Calculator”, Flansburg can do a multitude of complex mathematics equations instantly in his head, faster than someone could input into a calculator. He accredits the simple, pattern-oriented algorithm that he created to assist in solving the math equations that his audiences yell at him during his presentations.
Concetta Antico
Chances are Antico understands art better than you do. Concetta Antico is a “tetrachromat,” which is someone who has a chromosomal mutation that allows them to see more colors. Like, a lot more. The average person can see 1 million variants of colors across the visible spectrum, a tetrachromat can see up to 99 million.
Eero Mäntyranta
This man was a Winter Olympic Sports star during the mid-1990s, he excelled in long-distance skiing and snowshoeing events. He wasn’t necessarily better than his competitors, but he did have an edge. Mäntyranta suffered from a rare condition called PFCP, which caused his body to create more red blood cells and hemoglobin than usual. His blood retained oxygen 50% better than the competition, but that didn’t stop him from getting caught using HGH.
Marilu Henner
No, Henner is not considered superhuman for her performance in the hit show “Taxi.” Marilu Henner has a rare condition that causes her to remember every instance in her life exactly how it happened, whether she wants to or not. When asked about a date, Henner can recite exactly what happened that day in her life, down to how many sips of coffee she took, and the faces fans who asked her for autographs.
Lawrence Kim Peek
This is the man that the movie “Rain Man” was based on. Peek had the uncanny ability to memorize massive amounts of information all in one sitting. Since he was 16-months old he started showing signs of genius, but a developmental disability caused his body to deteriorate, he passed away from a heart attack in 2009.
Dr. Norman Gary
Dr. Gary is the master of his bees. He is the only person on earth who has been able to train and domesticate an entire hive of honey bees. Obviously, this is not fool-proof. He still gets stung every once in a while, but his bees respond to verbal commands just like a dog, which is strange since they’re all independently sentient creatures.
Stig Severinsen
This is the man that reclaimed David Blaine’s former breath-holding record. Severinsen held his breath for 22.35 minutes, in complete stasis. This man has been working as a professional free-diver since he was a kid.
Veronica Seider
Seider essentially has binoculars for eyes. She can identify individuals from over a mile away and can read signs exactly one mile away. She claims that she can see every pixel in her television set, and doctors ruled that she was 20/2 vision.
Shakuntala Devi
Devi is known as the “Human-Computer.” Since an early age, she has been able to recall exact formulas for physics and algebra problems, she was awarded several times for her intelligence and cognitive ability. Sadly, she passed away in 2002.
Michael Phelps
Phelps rightfully owns his record-setting gold medals and world record titles. He doesn’t necessarily have a superpower, he is one. Phelps’ body is biologically the ideal physique for swimming, and he has completely maxed out his capabilities.
Miguel Indurain
This man has an incredibly unique body type and physique that allowed him to win consecutive gold medals in bike races around the world. Indurain is very tall and has an abnormally large lung capacity and a very low heart rate.
Andre the Giant
Andre the Giant was exactly who you’d expect him to be. This enormous wrestler could confidently put down 100 (the highest count is 156) beers in one evening.
Mick Foley
Foley was a WWE superstar before he was forced to retire due to doctor’s orders. This man refused to get seriously injured, despite taking two unscripted 16-foot falls, getting his head stuck in a barbed wire thicket, and literally being blown up by C4 explosives.
Evel Knievel
Knievel could take a deadly fall and walk away from it unscathed. Everyone knows of his accomplishments but seldom do people mention his ability to fall safely despite literally falling 25 feet traveling 70 mph.
Chuck Yeager
This is the first man to ever break the sound barrier, he is also regarded as one of the best wartime pilots who ever lived. His exceptional eyesight and ability to withstand strong g-forces proved useful in his line of work.
Travis Pastrana
Some think Pastrana has a death wish, but he claims that he just wants to be the best at what he does. This freestyle motocross competitor, rally racing adrenaline junkie has broken several Evel Knievel’s records.
Jackie Chan
Chan is a fearless, and adorable actor. He performs all his own stunts and writes the majority of his choreography for the movies he’s in. His reflexes are twice as fast as the average person.
Philippe Petit
Petit was the first non-motorized daredevil to hit the scene. His most famous stunt was walking on a highwire in between the twin towers.
Tanner Foust
Foust is quite possibly one of the best racers who ever lived. He worked as a car stuntman in Hollywood on some big-name movies, and then transitioned to being a full-time racer.
Larry Walters
Also known as “Larry the Moron,” Walters was the first man to ascend into the stratosphere without any government-sanctioned help. He tied balloons to a lawn chair and ascended into the sky, but had trouble coming down. When he reached the ground he caused a widespread power outage and was arrested immediately. He was completely unfazed by this experience, and when asked why he did it he stated: “a man can’t just sit around.”
John Holtum
Holtum was a circus performer who specialized in strongman acts. He was the first man to famously stop a cannonball with only his bare stomach.
Harry Houdini
Everyone knows about Harry Houdini, but most don’t know about his specific achievements. He started as a cross country runner but later discovered that he had an innate talent for death-defying stunts. Houdini was incredibly fit, that was his claim to fame in the end. Unfortunately, one of his own fans did him in at the end of his career.
Alex Honnold
Arguably the hottest rock climber on the scene right now, Alex Honnold is famous for free soloing mountains, which means climbing with no ropes. He has an edge above his competition though since his brain cannot physically register fear.
Vitaliy Musiyenko
This famous free solo rock climber is most famous for free solo climbing ice structures. Using pics and special ice shoes, this man climbed over 1000 ft of sheer ice face, for some reason.
Iain Miller
This explorer sets out on specific days to find tall, seemingly unclimbable rocks and climbs them with no ropes, or any information about the rock. Some people think that this is stupid, but he has opened up hundreds of routes for climbers over the years.
Brette Harrington
Harrington is famous for being the world’s leading female free solo climber. She is completely fearless on the rock, and her body type makes her naturally suited to climb these dangerous locations. Do not try this at home.
Ueli Steck
This legendary Alpinist set multiple Everest records over the course of his tenure. He accredits his mountaineering success as a result of his overall fitness.
Steve Truglia
The James Bond stunt double has done the unspeakable. Flipping cars, jumping spike pits on a motorcycle, and he has lit himself on fire more times than you could count.
Bud Ekins
Bud Ekins was the master of balance. He was the first man to establish a “motorcycle tightrope” world record.
Tony Jaa
The best Muay Thai fighter on earth, he also works as a choreographer for movies, but often makes sequences that are so difficult to replicate that people ask him to dumb the actions down.
Johnny Knoxville
Knoxville is a stunt man extraordinaire. He created a genre of shock films, his superpower is being the stupidest man on Earth, on command of course.
Helen Gibson
This is the first professional woman stunt performer! She specialized in horse jumping, and rodeo antics.
Felix Baumgartner
This is the first man to jump from space, out of the Earth’s gravitational pull, and dive towards the ground. Yes, he is alive.
Jeb Corliss
Corliss is the most famous man to ever use a wingsuit. Tragically, he crashed a few years ago. He did not die, but he was severely injured and had to give up his hobby for a good bit of time.
Robbie Knievel
We bet you know who this guy’s father is. Robbie Knievel has donned his dad’s famous suit and is trying to make similar stunts that his father completed. Unfortunately, he was arrested for a DUI a couple of years ago and is serving jail time.
Glen Plake
Plake is the world’s most extreme freestyle skier. He also has the world’s most extreme hairdo.
Karina Hollekim
Hollekim was one of the world’s boldest base jumpers until she suffered a life-changing accident that ended her career. She is in rehabilitation now, but it is unlikely that she will return to base jumping.
Matt Hoffman
This is the man that put BMX on the map. He has done more for the X-Games than arguably anyone else.
Sebastian Vettel
One of the fastest men who ever lived. This Formula-One driver has narrowly escaped death more than anyone else.
Lebron James
James is the only man who lived that we might consider being Superman. He can practically fly, and he can double-cross cities in the blink of an eye.
Kevin Richardson
This man is an animal whisperer. He has historically approached ferocious jungle cats and successfully calmed them down and befriended them.
Liam Hoekstra
This little dude was born with a rare gene that made him insanely strong for practically no reason. This photo has not been edited.
Daniel Tammet
This supergenius claims that he can feel numbers as a strange form of synesthesia.
Natasha Demkina
For some reason, Demkina can see through people’s skin and determine what is medically wrong with them. She successfully identified the exact location of surgical pins in a victim of a car accident’s leg.