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This week: The Sporting Life
The Olympic trials for women's gymnastics marked the culmination of years of training for those young athletes who were talented enough to make the team. Do you think it is worth it to sacrifice a "normal" childhood to become an Olympic class athlete? At what point does devotion to a sport go too far? What is the ultimate reward of participating in athletics?
Smexia: There is a reward to participating in athletics. As with anything you must balance out your life. Just last week one of Texas A&M;'s women's basketball players had to call it quits due to injuries from playing basketball all her life. Now she will hurt and have back trouble for the rest of her life. She is 22. I don't think that is worth it. We must ask ourselves who these kids are doing it for? The fans, the team. mother and dad?? We can use athletics to teach great lessons in dedication, teamwork, and self esteem. These can be accomplished without the total monopolization of a childs life.
Moran: Olympic class athletes are of a sect of people who will and do all they can to be the best in their sport. For an athlete the boundaries between "normal" life and the sporting life become incredibly blurred. There can be no comparison between the aforementioned groups. Athletes hang out together, train together, have their own language and their own scale of devotion to their sport. An athlete knows he has done well when he vomits after a grueling race or when he is in the -zone- during the middle of a race. If these traits were exhibited in the "normal" populous, the "normal" populous would be considered sickly and insane. There is no point for an athlete to cross, there is no stepping over the edge. For the athlete, the reward is a distinct fervor for discipline and devotion that few other "normal" persons may match. That is their reward.
Dickj: Maybe what we consider to be the normal parameters for the fair use of childhood is bent. After all, we tend to throw away the expertise of age as a disposable commodity. I believe the human uses up life as a means to understanding. Many never achieve the realization of maturity. Sports casters probably embody this better than anyone. Children in suits. So why not begin younger to learn the lessons of life. How many people ever attain the discipline necessary to win gold. Very few -- and this should not be the standard we expect from everyone. It's just that most of us never have the chance to learn what it's like to attain such lofty goals. Olympic gold, Karate champion, or balance beam expert. It hurts most when you reach the point-of-no-return and the ability is gone with age. And sometimes that age is very young. It should be clear where to draw the line if an adult abuses the child for their own aims. But never take away the opportunity for that young person to achieve perfection, even for a fleeting moment.
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