this is an interesting question... in my family I was not considered athletic - even now I don't know if they think of me that way. I am small and thin, and I have to struggle for every muscle I have. So this has been a long road for me to 'prove' I can be. Now here's the rub.

I have *always* loved sports. I listened to the St Louis Cards games while I did my schoolwork, and watched the Illini in basketball, football, and occaisionally other sports. I played soccer both as a kid and again on HS (but on the boy's team, we didn't HAVE a girls team). In HS I almost never got to play but I still had fun. I also ran track one season. I was decent at that but didn't enjoy it. I also played Little League as a kid (stuck in the outfield and always last to bat). I should also mention that I took ballet for many years as a kid (and enjoyed it), and I rode horses for many years as a kid (and loved) that. And I fancied myself a bike racer on my Schwinn 10-speed, but back then bike racing was hardly even a sport, and certainly not one for girls/women.

My sisters were both pretty good competitive swimmers & had the right build for that. They swam from grade school to high school (one even swam in college). My brother was a good competitive track and cross country runner going to state several times (lean like me, but tall too). My parent's weekends often revolved around swim and running events. I never won anything in sports. But to be fair my parents remained supportive of my events, and they carted me lots of sport related places too.

In college, I did Tae Kwon Do, and managed to stay on the women's ice hockey club for a season (yeah I was mostly a bench warmer).

Post college, I took up skiing, hiking, kayaking, and now bicycling.
None of those were sports that anyone else in my family did/do with any regularity. But they were all sports I loved and still do!

As an adult, my sibs have gone on to run lots of marathons, and my parents have gone to some of their marathons as well. When I started riding last year, prepping for the long distance event, I finally felt like I had a foot in the door to talk with them about stuff... and now hopefully will continue with tris and so on. And I still love pro baseball and football, and now pro cycling.

So, I think I am pretty athletic, with all the sports I have tried. I've had fun in almost all of them, even without being great at most of them. Several sports I've stumbled upon in later life I thought I could have become pretty good at, had I been exposed to them earlier in life. Now, I guess, I find sports that require persistence more so than skill to be right up my ally.