by Ryan Eshoff and Adam Hill
For many years, sports have been a fundamental component of the dynamics of society. As the roles and lives of all members of our culture have changed over the past decades, athletes have not gone unaffected. The differences between today’s athlete and the athlete of yester-year are monumental and span over many generations.
A crucial change that has developed over the years concerns athletic specialization. Today’s athletes, particularly at amateur levels, are nearly all devoted to a singular sport. While it is important to develop skill-sets pertaining to individual sports, specialization discourages a wide range of developed talents, abilities, disciplines, activities, and relationships.
In addition to constant involvement in a single sport, today’s athletes face numerous distractions “like TV, cars, and money, among many other things,” says Greg Marshall, a current CCS record-holder in the 400 meter relay. Marshall also believes that modern athletes “set too low of standards” and “do not test their limits enough,” which culminates in falling short of their athletic potential. These ideas contrast with Marshall’s personal mindset as a young athlete, which included such philosophies as “winning at every level” and “being the best at everything [he does].”
To the casual eye, the physical limitations of past athletes are virtually undetectable nowadays. Modern sports stars have achieved incredible levels of speed, strength, and size. Whether by natural or artificial means, the players that we watch everyday on ESPN have achieved premiere levels of physical condition. However, recent scandals and reports involving performance-enhancing substances have raised a shadow of doubt in the public opinion of sports. The situation provides a paradox: while today’s athletes are the closest thing to perfect physical specimens this society has seen, it is these same athletes who choose to taint their bodies with destructive substances.
As players have become more and more physically unique, the maturation of their bodies and skills has begun to occur earlier and earlier in their lives. Consequently, professional recruiters and scouts have started their intense searches, in some cases, while their targeted athletes are still in junior high and high school. Originally formed in 1888, the Amateur Athletic Union has expanded into the largest prep sports program in the nation. The AAU currently sanctions 32 different sports, ranging from baseball, basketball and football to trampoline, martial arts, and baton twirling. Because many superstar athletes get involved with AAU and similar organizations in order to obtain better exposure, the NCAA, college sports’ governing body, keeps a close eye on the activities of the many programs. In recent years, the AAU and NCAA have butted heads over various issues such as association with colleges and coaches, illegal benefits, and recruiting. The NCAA, formed from the short-lived Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States in 1910, was created to protect the welfare of young, aspiring athletes. After not offering women’s athletic opportunities for more than half a century, the NCAA assimilated the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.
A crucial factor in the expanding sports world, as in many other aspects of society, is the omnipresent issue of gender equality. Title IX, the Educational Amendment established in 1972, provided for equal opportunities for men and women. The amendment is still discussed to this day.
In any day and age, the influence and impact that athletes have on society is epic. Politicians were not able to unite North and South Korea. Actors did not perform a country-unifying “Miracle on Ice.” A mass emigration did not provide the most welcome shelter from Hurricane Katrina. Doctors did not blast a pinch-hit, World Series home run in 1988. Civil rights leaders did not defy Hitler in the 1936 Olympics, or open the gates of baseball for all people. Government agents did not reveal a criminal agenda in Salt Lake City in 2002. Astronauts did not defy gravity in Chicago in the ‘90s. Scientists did not float like a butterfly or sting like a bee. No brand of human being has left their mark quite like the athlete. They have been able to accomplish things beyond the realm of sports, beyond merely winning and losing a contest.
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