What Is An Athlete?

I know this woman casually from talking to her at the gym.  We've chatted for years off and on when we run into each other in the locker room.  We don't know each other well.  In fact, I don't even know her name.  I do know she works out frequently and has competed in 33 triathalons (swim/bike/run).  She's not going to do any more triathalons because she doesn't like the way people push her under water at the beginning of the swimming segment.  She is very talkative and tonight, when she was talking, she called me athletic.  I demurred and said something like, "Well, I try."  She said women discount themselves more than men when it comes to being an athlete.  She said I should consider myself an athlete.  I told her the only time I feel nimble is when I am swimming but she continued to insist that I was athletic.  I consider her athletic because she works out frequently and has competed in 33 triathalons.  I've never done any kind of "athalons" much less a triathalon.  I exercise a lot and I am more physically fit that some people but less physically fit than others who are older than me. I guess I think team members are certainly athletes.  I guess I don't really know what makes an athlete.  What I do know for sure is that this other woman's opinion of me as an athlete made me feel really great.