What Is a Mental Athlete?

A mental athlete (or “MA” for short) is someone who competes in memory competitions, mental math competitions, or other types of mind sport.

More specifically, a memory athlete is someone who competes in memory sports.

We have a whole forum section dedicated to memory sports where you can learn all the memory techniques!

Contrary to popular belief, competitive memorizers do not have photographic or eidetic memory. It’s all achievable through practice.

Is It Hard to Become a Mental Athlete?

It isn’t difficult to become a mental athlete! To get started, check out our page on memory competition training techniques.

The memory community is friendly and welcoming. Even if you’re just a beginner, can start competing right away in friendly matches on Memory League (our online memory competition platform).

Top Memory Athletes and Rankings

Here’s a video of some mental athletes in action:

You can learn about some of the top mental athletes on the Memory League rankings page. The current top 20 ranked mental athletes there (as of February, 2023) are:

1. Alex Mullen
2. Andrea Muzii
3. Naoki Miwa
4. Simon Reinhard
5. Vishvaa Rajakumar
6. Katie Kermode
7. Ryo Kobayashi
8. Yashuhira Yamaguchi
9. Jan Zoń
10. Orkhan Ibadov
11. Don Michael Vickers
12. Braden Adams
13. Emanuele Regnani
14. Johannes Mallow
15. Ewelina Preś
16. Sayaka Hokazono
17. Maksymilian Kozłowicz
18. Mohamed Ramadan
19. Kevin Schulz
20. Boris Konrad

Want to see if you can make it into the list? Join our community and start training on Memory League.