Once the cheering stops: The life of a retired pro-athlete

Life as a retired athlete can be though. You go from being in the middle of the circus, with all eyes on you, to "nothing". In the beginning the athlete, especially the male ones, has a lot of money. However, according to Sport Illustrated (March 23. 2009), 78% of all former players in the NFL have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress by the time they have been retired for two years. How is that possible? Are not former professional athletes able to settle down with a family, get a job and live a normal life? 

In fact many of the players has a great fortune when they quit the sport - we are talking about million dollar contracts! How are they able to go bankrupt when they have more money than most of America? The answer is pretty easy: lack of financial and economical knowledge and skills. They are used to live on "the top of the world", with the fanciest cloths, cars and houses. House maids, servants and vexations - there are a lot of factors that makes the fortune "fly away fast". Without a budget and economic control or understanding, going bankrupt is easier than you think.

A more important factor is the loss of identity. Sport creates identity, so what are you when you quit the sport? You lose the structure in your every day life: No one is telling you what to do or when to do it anymore. Moreover you might do not have a goal or destination anymore. For athletes who has worked hard and focused toward a main goal for several years this can be a big issue.

It gets even more critical when the athlete went pro too early. If they did not finish a degree in college, they are literally standing on bear ground without an education or job. How do you then move on?

I however, believe that if an athlete is able to require new skills, he or she can use the good values and attitudes s/he got from sport to be successful on other platforms. They are structural, motivated, hardworking, focused and determined - in other words: they have all the qualities that is required to be successful in the job life.    

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"Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender representation in Sport Illustrated

I believe many have the impression that male athletes are more represented in media than females. Moreover, the few articles that cover women's sport often focus more on body and appearance, rather than athletic performance. In this blog I will examine gender representation in the magazine "Sport Illustrated" by looking at the number of cover photos and the style of these photos, and thereby determine if the impression of gender discrimination in sport medias really is the case. 

I went to Sport Illustrated's webpage (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com) and the first I saw was that 4 of 4 main news are about male athletes. Basketball, hockey and football is outlined with "in action pictures". I find this wired: Firstly, there is an ongoing winter Olympic in Sochi, Russia, these days, and basketball and football are not Olympic sports. The to sports are also known to be male dominated. Moreover, although several American women has taken medals in the Olympics, you can barely find any information about it! By scrolling down the home page, I only manage to find one article about the Olympics! 

Furtherrmore I find 17 out of 23 news articles with pictures to be about male athletes, and again the four American male dominated sports are the best represented. Only 1 of the 6 cases about females are actually talking about a "real" female athlete: If you scroll down on the site you will find a small picture of Katilyn Farrington who won the gold medal in snowboard slop style competition. The 5 other cases about females, are on the other side related to appearance and body: Skinny and tanned girls in bikini are posing for the camera, and the articles are about the choice of the 50th anniversary swimsuit cover. Another example is a female golfer who has chosen to pose naked for the sport magazine. 

I think this way of covering the sport is wrong. To focus on male is one thing, but to use the small room left for women for modeling posing is just absorbed. Males are pictured in athletic actions, representing their sport, however the females are used to entertain the men? What does bikini and nudity have to do with sports other than that the ancient Greeks competed naked? I think Sport Illustrated is discriminating by gender, and they shoulwith respect.   

This screenshot of the webpage shows how the magazine is presenting athletic articles about male, while females are represented through appearance and nudity. 

Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball and Football players get paid?

For many years now we have been witnessing an enormous growth in the college sport economically. With so many sponsors, spectators, ticket sale and media coverage, college sport has become very popular, and thereby a good business. However, college athletes are competing through NCAA and are not allowed to receive money or others reward under any circumstances. So where does all this money go? And is it fair that athletes who dedicates their life, and make a lot of scarifies are not paid with more than honor? 

According to Taylor Branch the NCAA do not allow student athletes to be paid because they have to maintain their "amateurism status" and because pay checks will make the athlete break faith with their educational mission. Nevertheless, new scandals about student athletes receiving money "under the table" rolls up every year. There has also been a huge debate on the recruitment of athletes. Fair someone might say, while other thinks it is sad that the student athlete ends up with all the consequences. 

Branch argue that the real scandal is rather the structure of college sports, "wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing themselves". It is the athletes performance that draws attention, sells ticket and creates a marked. Nevertheless, they do not get anything. 

I think it is sad that college sport has become such a great business. It does not only ruin the good values of sport, such as enjoyment, health and entertainment, it also creates these moral issues. For what if we let the football players and basketball players get paid through college. Will they attend class and put effort into getting an education? Or will they stop caring, because they believe their future is secured through the sport? And is it not enough that they are paid for their education? Most students are paying for their college educate through funds that was started when they were born. 

Even more interesting, is what will happen with the students athletes' motivation for sport participation if they are paid. Will the pay check be the motivation for continuing? What about doing your best because you want to prove to yourself that you are good enough. Or for enjoyment, leadership, friendship and teams spirit? I fear pay checks in college sport will destroy the instinct motivation of many athletes, and replaced by extrinsic motivation (money).  

High School Sport

High school sport was emerged to provide physical fitness among teenagers, as well as strengthen the military. It also kept the teenagers busy: By doing sport they would stay away from bad decisions and behaviors. However, today we see a development with both positive and negative sides: It has become more important to create successful athletes and bring honor to the school, rather to ensure long-lasting motivation for sport and physical activity. This is not positive considering the increasing obesity trend we see in today's society. 

If we look at the objective of creating big athletes in High School, we may say they are being successfully met. Colleges has no longer problems with recruiting good athletes. They are stronger, faster and better than before - thanks to the high budget sport programs they attend from early age. However, the interscholastic sport has dark sides as well: When they start specifying in sport in such a early age, the chances for a "burn out" before they reach college increases - they are done, tired and unmotivated. And what about educational goals? When young athletes experience success, they are easily blended. They will say "Oh, I do not need to go to school, I do not need a education, I will go pro and thereby get famous and rich". What happens then when they start facing adversity? 

An even bigger problem, I believe, is the early selection and elimination of teenagers in sport. Already in middle school they have tryouts and chose those they think has the greatest "talent". But how can you tell wether a 13 year old got talent or not? Because of the early specialization, children with high potential and talent are excluded from the sport, while does who get a spot on the team might be put under a lot of pressure to preform. Is that right? To crush dreams and build pressure among children? Is this a way to create good values and attitudes, and long-time motivation for physical activity? I do not believe so. 

So what can we do to solve this problem? I believe by letting everyone participate, and focus on individual mastery and  progression, rather than results and performance is the key to safe gourd both the physical health and the elite sport. To have fun is the key to motivation - no matter what your goal is. 

Sport, Politics and the Olympics

1972 - Munich, Germany: Israeli Hostage Situation 

The Munich massacres took place during the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany in 1972. On the 5th of September, eight Palestinian terrorist managed to get into the Olympic city. They killed two Israeli participants, and took nine others as hostages. The terrorist organization, which held the Israeli Olympic athletes as hostages, required the 200 guerrilla soldiers, whom where held as prisoners in Israeli jails, to be released. 

  

I will say the Munich massacre reflects Sage & Eitzen's fourth political use of sport: The exploration of sport by politicians. The tragedy show how people with power are willing to use the Olympics to create fear and chaos. 

I do not agree with the statement "Sport is pure and devoid of political interference". The terrorist organization "Black September" clearly showed how sport (Olympics) was used to solve a political case. The conflict, which is found between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East, was brought into the Olympics, and destroyed its purity, justice, peace and cohesion.     

London Calling: The Globalization of the NFL

Today, football (in american eyes) is a sport mainly played on the American continent. The NFL (National Football league) has base in America, but are supposed to control all organized forms of professional football. Lately NFL has shown interest to expand its operations outside of the USA. They want the sport to grow bigger; to become an international and global sport, and not only a american. 

An expansion of the sport will have a lot of benefits. First of all, it will create a bigger audience, more supporters, and thereby a greater economy for the sport. The sport will get better TV coverage, more sponsors and more consumers. An international NFL will also lead to better recruiting, which will further lead to greater performances and higher level in the sport. 

But where to start? Apparently, London has been chosen as there expansion site. I find this pretty natural. It is the one of the first countries you reach by crossing the Atlantic ocean. Moreover, England is considered the greatest soccer nation in the world. Soccer and football have a lot of common values and the game setup has quite some similarities, and one can therefore imagine that the British population will easily adapt the  "new" sport. Furthermore, Europeans has a trend to watch British sports and leagues. By making American football a part of the English sport, NFL hope football can expand further out in Europa, and on long-term basis become an international sport. 

However, there are some dark sides of this plan. First of all, since all organized professional football are under the control of NFL, which is one league, teams would be forced to travel long distances and turn the time-zone completely around for playing a game. It would also be necessary with different salary cups for the team playing in Europe, because of the different tax rules and prices. Further on the European team would probably have an American base, to avoid a lot of traveling. But then again, what is the point of an European team, if it only travels to Europe few times a year to play home games? 

An other question worth thinking about is of course whether Europe is ready for an football invasion in the first place. With soccer being such a great sport, especially in England, among with many others (especially winter sports), NFL might end up loosing more than winning.     

Reference:

Bamwell, Bill (2013, Aug 12). London Calling. Grantland. Retrieved from http://www.grantland.com/print?id=9615240. 

Sociognesis of Cross Country Skiing

Do not know what cross country skiing is? Take 3 minutes to watch this YouTube film. It is from the World Championship in 2011 which were held in Oslo, Norway.

Cross country skiing originated from Northern Europe (Scandinavia) around 4000 years ago. High mountains, big plains and deep fjords caused barriers to hunting, and the transportation and communication between the people in the North during the winter. Skis became a tool which more or less solved this problem. Today Cross country skiing is Norway's national sport, and is very popular in Europe together with the other nordic sports (alpine, ski jumping, freestyle and biathlon). In US, however, only a minor of the population have heard of the sport.   

The distinction to modern skiing as we know it today, came first in the 1700s. Skiing was used by the military, both for training and transportation. This is the first evidences of what we today call competitive sport in Norway. The first cross country skiing company was established by the military in 1747. 

In May 1861, Trysilgutten IL was established as the world's first ski club, but already as early as in 1776 different ski competitions was conducted. These competitions was reserved for men in the age above 20, and there was no timing! How fast you could ski was not interesting; what really mattered was the technic. Different "judges" were hiding around in the course and gave the participants points for their technic.    

From the start of 1900s skiing as we know it today started to take shape, and we find the first rules of timing, standardized distances, and classification. Today cross country skiing has two main techniques; classic and skating, and the distances raced are sprint, relay, 5km, 10km, 15km, 30km and 50km. The sport also contain duathlon, which indicates the participants switch from classic to skate half way thorough the race. 

Today the equipment has an essential role in the sport. After many years with developing of faster skis, and products to make ski glide faster, it has become impossible to succeed without the top performance equipment. Unfortunatley, this has made the sport very expensive, and you can observe children in the age of 10 wearing top carbon equipment worth thousands of dollars.

 

Until 1970 skiing was performed with wood skis and bamboo poles. Today most equipment are made of carbon for lightness and for ensuring top performance. The skis Petter Northug (the world's greatest skier) is wearing in this picture cost around $750. He has over 60 pairs of them. 

Cross country skiing was in the program when the first Winter Olympics were held in Paris in France in 1924. In 1952 the Olympics were held in Oslo, Norway, and for the first time women were allowed to compete. The sport has had great starts throughout time, like Bjærn Dæhli, Petter Northug, Marit Bjørgen and Therese Johaug. However, what might be very significant is the Norwegian dominance in this sport throughout its history. In spite of other nations, as Finland and Russia being caught for cheating and drugs, Norway has not had many scandals and nevertheless beaten people who have cheated. 

The sport today are currently facing challenges as cheating and drugs. Success is so highly valued that people are willing to whatever it takes to win. Injustice when it comes to equipment, economy and training facilities are under debate. For instance; the Norwegian national team receives thousand of dollars from the government to ensure success, while in US the sport is based on private contribution. Is that fair?  

Refrences: 

-       Enjolars, Bernard, Ørnulf Seippel og Ragnhild H Waldahl. 2005. Norsk idrett – organisering, fellesskap og politikk. Oslo: Akilles. 

-       Goksøyr, Matti. 2008. Historien om norsk idrett. (Kap. 4 og 5). Oslo: Abstrakt forlag.

-       Anita Koot. 2012. Skihistorien er norsk. Olavsrosa. http://www.olavsrosa.no/redaksjonelt.aspx?id=146728 (lest 25.09.12)

-       Holmenkollen. 2012. Skimuseet. http://www.holmenkollen.com/nor/Home-Holmenkollen/Skimuseet/Skihistorie (lest 25.09.12)

-       IL Trysilgutten. 2012. Organisasjonsplan IL Trysilgutten April 2012. http://idrett.speaker.no/Downloads/164167/docs/ILT_Organisasjonsplan_2012.pdf (lest 23.09.12)

-       Norsk Tipping. 2012. Norsk Tipping historie. https://www.norsk-tipping.no/selskapet/om_norsk_tipping/historie (lest 22.09.12).