.

just angle shoot for the special Olympics. pick events with the most physically incapacitated athletes.

also there are organ transplant olympics. transplant an eye

I think your best bet would be to participate in the sports where the number of participants is the lowest. In addition i would aim for some kind of team sport simply because you otherwise have to be top 3 to win a medal while with a teamsport top xx could be good enough.

Shooting, sailing and horseriding i would consider depending on my personal talent/wealth.
Beachvolleyball would be my personal pick, the main motivation is that the players are often normal volleyball players so maybe you could cover some ground by pure specialization.

I think the odds would be pretty insane on this 1 tho, 1:10000000 or something. First of all you will absolutely have to sacrifice 4 years of your life training 8h a day to make this. Even if you are top 3 of the world the chance to actually win a medal can be around 50% due to random chance. The main problem is however the fact the individual is average in all area's, i don't think an average individual can catch up in 4 years because the participators are most likely gifted above average.

Suici

Here's the real answer.

His chance of actually winning a medal on his own merits, either individually or as part of a team, is basically zero unless he turns out to be insanely gifted at a sport that is all or mostly skill based (ie: shooting, archery) rather than athleticism.

There are a number of team sports where if he was somehow able to get on a stacked team (bribery, nepotism) the team could carry him to a medal while he rides the bench (maybe plays some meaningless minutes).

Especially in the US, people fight like hell for those benchwarming spots. It's not like the coach is going to take anybody on the team that has nothing to contribute.

I think your average Joe's best bet is becoming a great coach and eventually coaching a team to victory, but that will take 20-30 years rather than four.

Surely sailing? If you got a few previous gold-medalists to teach you how to do it well I think you could be in with a chance really. It's not like there's any major athleticism or talent involved.

People who are saying Fencing is his best bet are absolutely delusional.

lollll

Is everyone in this forum so clueless about sports?

Most are.

See:
I could kick a 55 yd field goal thread
I could beat Mayweather thread
To a lesser extent, I could take a 14 yr old MMA champ thread

People on this forum suffer from major delusions of athletic grandeur for whatever reason.

What sport is quicker to pick up?

There's obv talent involved in sailing, but it seems reasonable to think that most normal reasonably fit person could train and workout enough to be able to sustain the physical aspect of sailing.

Link to thread? I'm pretty sure a lot of athletes can do that if they had a couple months to train.

I think the main problem is average, i think a random person has more chance then an average person. I simply think an average person will never win an olympic medal. At those levels it will be impossible to compensate the lack of talent i fear.

Suici

how about dressage? If you can put together the money to get the best horse in the world you can learn a lot of horsemanship in 4 years, and you don't have to be tiny if you only compete in the dressage event.

Assuming they don't drop the event by London I'd say you'd easily have a 1/5000 chance.

This.