LONDON -- In Felix Baumgartner's eyes, Mike Tyson probably looks like a wimp, Tiger Woods possesses no useful skills and David Beckham is merely the guy who married a Spice Girl. Baumgartner's world is worth following, if you can stomach it. All the Austrian does for a living is confront death as if it were an annoying occupational hazard. This year he parachuted out of a balloon, landed on a platform, changed parachutes and then jumped again. Eat your heart out, Evel Knievel.

For those not well-versed in X Games history -- and who is?-- here's a refresher: Baumgartner is the world's most renowned base jumper. He's also one of about three dozen extreme and adventure athletes being considered for an athlete-of-the-year honor by the World Sports Awards 2000. Here's another refresher you might need: The WSA is an Austrian-based nonprofit organization founded three years ago that's trying -- with rapid success -- to become the Academy Awards of the sporting world. The WSA has chosen 15 categories in which to honor athletes annually. Five finalists in each category, determined by media voting, will be announced in London on Wednesday. A jury composed mostly of former athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Nadia Comaneci will then select the winners.

The competition in the extreme/adventure category is tough-- extremely tough. Free-diver Heimo Hanke will command serious consideration. All he did in the year 2000 was plunge a world record 112 meters on just a healthy pair of lungs. Lost an earring at the bottom of the pool? I'm sure Hanke would be happy to help out.

Then there's snow biker Eric Barone, who reached a speed of 222.223 kph and lived to tell about it. Don't count out ice climber Stefan Glowacz, the first human to scale the Renard Tower in the Antarctic. I've never seen the Renard Tower, but it must be huge if no one's scaled it until now. During an awards ceremony at London's Royal Albert Hall on Jan. 16, the WSA winners will be announced. When the extreme/adventure envelope is opened, everyone will applaud appropriately. But in truth, most will know little about the honoree. Until Nike adopts a "Be like Baumgartner" campaign -- and only Hanke should be holding his breath for that -- Generation X's athletes will compete in relative obscurity.

However, if you're a struggling street luger or windsurfer looking for inspiration, this was your kind of year. Two other categories might very well be won by the little guy, the one without a sneaker deal or a seven-figure contract or an entourage the size of the Renard Tower. I'm talking about Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner and 200-meter runner Konstadinos Kederis. No one this time last year -- friends and family aside -- had heard of the pair. What a difference a single match or race can make.

Gardner pulled off the year's greatest upset thus far by beating the invincible Alexander Karelin at the Olympics last month. Karelin hadn't lost in 13 years and was set to claim an unprecedented fourth Olympic gold. The Russian had no reason to fear Gardner for one simple reason: he barely knew who the American was. Until 2000, Gardner's greatest accomplishment was a fifth-place finish at the '97 World Championships. Blind to the odds he faced, Gardner toppled Karelin and gave underdogs everywhere something to cheer about. In the combat sports category, Gardner's Herculean feat will be compared to those of heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis, judoka Ryoko Tamura and sumo wrestler Musashimaru, among others. But what's a little stiff competition if, deep down, you're just a farm boy from Wyoming who shocked the world? Kederis also dropped a few jaws in Sydney by winning the men's 200 meters out of nowhere with the slowest winning time in 20 years. Until this year, Kederis' claim to fame had been a 191st best time in the rarely raced 300 meters. Sure, it helped that Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene weren't in the 200 field. But Kederis wasn't even predicted to finish in the top five. Even Johnson was amazed at the odds the Greek overcame. "He's a guy whom I've never heard of," Johnson confessed. "And I'm a 200-meter runner!"

The men's track and field category is filled with big-name contenders like Johnson, Greene and Haile Gebrselassie, all gold medalists in Sydney. But if voters factor the unpredictability of Kederis' feat, as they should do, he'll find success in London, too. Expect to hear familiar names when the winners of the other categories are announced. Michael Schumacher will be tough to beat for the motor sports award, as will Marion Jones in women's track and field. Woods is a virtual lock to make an acceptance speech in the ball sports category. But thanks to a pair of overachievers, the combat and men's track and field races are wide open.

At least one thing is certain. Every unknown wakeboarder, inline skater and dog-sled racer from here to the Antarctic will be rooting for Gardner and Kederis to beat the odds once again. If they do, Baumgartner and his peers will be jumping for joy.