When you think of an athlete, who do you think of, Archie Griffin? Do you think about Olympians such as Lindsey Vonn? The media makes us think that whenever we think of athletics, we imagine large sport complexes and people running about and playing games we call sports. But, where do we get this definition? Why do we think this way, who has set the precedent that athletes are purely physical? Is this just a stereotype that needs to be broken?
Webster’s American Dictionary defines an Athlete as “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.” The word originates from Middle English, from the Latin word athleta, which further is from Greek athlētēs from athlein to contend for a prize, from Athlon prize, contest. So basically, the word originates as someone who competes for a prize, but the word has evolved to generally mean someone who does it in activities requiring physical strength. However, why is this the way it is? Why is someone who trains and competes in a math tournament, commonly referred to as a “mathlete”, not a true athlete, by definition?
A good way to approach this issue is to talk about what an athlete is not, before redefining what exactly one is. Athletes, often times instead of gaining pleasure from logic puzzles or brain bending activities (math or science), gain it from physical outlets such as sports. Traditionally, they play sports such as football, basketball, soccer, baseball, and
Sports are something that everyone in the world, regardless of age, sex, or nationality, can enjoy. Whether it's a child playing in his first t-ball game or a professional athlete swimming in the Olympics and everyone in between, sports can connect almost everyone. Fan support and overall devotion for athletic competition has raised professional athletes to superstars and national icons; Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday to some, and sports are one of the largest moneymakers in the economy.
Differences between athletes and non-athletes were found for males and females across all academic performance measures, with females contributing more to the differences between athletes and non-athletes on GPAs and not dropping out of school.
It was called “Acceptance,” a story about a father whose alcoholism kills his son, an All-American football star. A second chance is then offered in the form of two new sons, one homosexual and the other intellectually disabled. As far as the outcome, you would have to “…wait for the movie”. The outlandish story Rae Carruth imagined would never reach the big screen, instead his own life would far eclipse the scenario he created when he chose to have his eight-month pregnant girlfriend and unborn baby murdered instead of paying child support. Part of his plan did work, Cherica Adams did die, but not before calling 911, identifying Carruth, and also giving birth to their son, who survived. It was a shocking crime that would make headlines,
Many athletes spend lots of hours dedicated to their sport of choice. They do this by practicing in their free time, team practice, team meetings, and traveling. Then, they have to study for their classes. This to me is like working a full time job with a heavy load ofn classes you have to attend to and do well. Dave Anderson stated, “College athletes spend an average of 43.3 hours per week dedicated to their sport” (Anderson 1). Also, Anderson stated, “This means that college athletes have to work 90 hours per week just to remain in school on their scholarship. This is the equivalent to working two full time jobs with a side job on the weekends just to pay their bills” (Anderson 2). Sports can put a lot of stress on a student’s school work achievement goals. People should know that college for student athletes demands a lot out of them and basically drains them physically as well as mentally. This is based on all the time they spend on sports and
As a casual reader of the sports section of this newspaper, you come across many articles depicting the triumphs of local athletes. However, very rarely do these articles describe the actual athlete behind the success. Athletes come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. They range from the incredibly talented to the horribly uncoordinated. Some are great teammates while others would rather be a one man team. Certain athletes seek out attention from the people around them while others are modest and stay in the background. The fact of the matter is that there is a wide spectrum of different types of athletes that exist in this world and no two athletes are exactly the same. However, each can be put
Every year, millions of people sit down and watch college athletes play the sport they love. These players are some of the best in the nation, and even the world. They do their jobs on the court or field, while their schools rack up the money. These players practice almost two times every day, go to class, and at the end of the day still have homework. An average student athlete spends about forty hours a week on athletics (Jacobs).
What is an athlete? An athlete is someone who strives for first place and works hard to get there. There has been many controversies over whether or not NASCAR drivers are considered athletes or not. However, NASCAR drivers are considered athletes. Take five time championship winner Jimmy Johnson for example. Jimmy Johnson is an athlete because he practices as often as he can and he participates in a highly competitive and challenging sport.
Sports are not for everybody, not only because of talent level, but because a certain mindset is to be had to be successful at any sport. A commitment is made. Forty hours of practice a week, the average amount of time spent practicing for football players, all for a one hour game, the average time of one game of college football, takes dedication. That is not even counting the time spent icing, resting, and studying the playbook or film, not to mention the school work to be kept up with for college and high school students. Most athletes have become used to the grind and juggling three or four time consuming activities all at one time while being successful at each. Waking up at the break of dawn, following a schedule, and suffering consequences when a bad choice is made creates character and discipline that is often needed for many little league, high school, and college athletes. The most important non tangible thing sports teach anyone is how to get back up after falling, how to get knocked down but get right back up and keep going, how to move on from failure and overcome it, focusing on the next important part of life. These skills of determination and courage taught through sports are essential for being successful in any part of life and are hard to come by anywhere
The desire to compete — and win — is as old as history itself. From the beginnings of sport, athletes have sought out foods and potions to turn their bodies into winning machines. As early as 776 BCE, the very first Olympic games, there are records of attempts to increase testosterone levels (“Steroid Abuse in Sports”). Ancient Greek wrestlers ate vast amounts of meat to gain muscle mass, and Norse “Berserker” warriors took hallucinogenic mushrooms before battle. The first competitive athletes to be charged for doping, however, were swimmers in 1860s Amsterdam. Doping of all kinds, from caffeine to cocaine to anabolics quickly spread to other sports (“Anabolic Steroids, a Brief History”).
Whether it be baseball, football, soccer, or basketball, sports are appreciated not only in America, but all over the world. One of these sports that is particularly popular in America is Football. The immense crowds of people who sit at a stadium or on the couch to watch a game never fail to recognize every single play on the field; however, many fans pay little to no attention to one of the most important components of the game, the player-association relationship. When signing a contract with an NFL team an NFL player is effectively dedicating his life to his new organization. His duty is to play for his team in order to make the organization money, and money they make. In the NFL last year “each team received $226.4 million” (Brady 1).
In 2011 Golden Tate, Detroit Lions wide receiver, tweeted that driving a car does not make someone athletic. In 2013 Donovan McNabb, retired NFL quarterback, made a comment that he did not consider Jimmie Johnson an athlete. The remarks were fueled when Jimmie Johnson, six-time champion in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, was nominated for Best Male Athlete at ESPN’s Espy Awards in 2011. Merriam-Webster defines an Athlete as a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina (“Athlete” 1). Auto Racing is recognized as a sport by the Association of IOC Recognised International
Salaries, wages, and compensations have always been major and generally controversial topics in democratic America. And, with the rising popularity of college athletics, particularly football, compensation (or lack thereof) for college athletes has recently been a hot topic in American sports. While some of the debate stems from the similarity between responsibilities college athletes have to their programs and those of professionals, most of the issue involves the principles of amateurism. Recent “scandals” involving college athletes such as Terrelle Pryor, Johnny Manziel, and Todd Gurley have raised questions about the ethics of amateurism, particularly with regard to the NCAA organization. The issue is found in a very gray area, where there is most likely no definitive one-size-fits-all solution, but the resolution of this issue is one that will change and shape the future of college athletics across the national landscape.
When people hear the word athlete, the first people they probably think of are athletes like Reggie Bush, Kevin Garnett, or Sidney Crosby. The last kind of person that is probably thought of is a race car driver. Which raises the question, is a race car driver a true athlete? Much of this depends on how you would define the word athlete. According to The Merriam Webster Dictionary, athlete is defined as “a person who is trained to compete in athletics” (Merriam-Webster). This leads to the question, what should be considered athletics and what should not be considered athletics? The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines athletics as “exercises and games requiring physical skill, strength, and endurance”
Every athlete has wished they could jump a little higher, swim a little longer and run a little faster. Throughout the history of sport there have been accounts of chemical enhancements taken by athletes to give them this advantage. This has developed more as time has taken its grasp on modern medicinal practices. People try to obey the laws of a pure sport, yet there seems to be an increasing margin of those who “dope” and get away with it and the small group those that does not, how does this still happen? Is the solution to just allow doping? While with so much speculation and ethically derivative rhetoric to be examined, doping to increase strength in a sport is explicitly wrong to the sport itself. Chemical enhancements discredit the integrity
When many people think of sports, the topic of physics doesn't always come to mind. They usually don't think about connecting athletics with academics. In reality math, science, and especially physics, tie into every aspect of sports. Sports are a commonality that brings nations together, Soccer, known as football to most of the world, is said to an unspoken language, which unties people from different lands through a passion to play a game. Athletics and sports are made by the people who play, watch, and study them. Without all of the enthusiastic participants, there would be no development, education, and intensity that we all know and love about sports. The one component that reigns over