From "The One Limit Simone Biles Wouldn’t Break" by Ryu Spaeth (NY Magazine).
July 30, 2021
"Biles need only watch the documentary The Last Dance, which features [Michael] Jordan alone in a mansion drinking enormous glasses of alcohol and hating everybody..."
"... to understand that there is a cost to valorizing competition to the exclusion of everything else. [Tiger] Woods’s career self-imploded in a way that seemed like a direct response to the punishing mentality required to dominate every tournament — which didn’t stop the emergence of the narrative that he had to start winning again in order to redeem himself. There are surely superathletes who avoid becoming alienated head cases (Roger Federer seems like a pretty well-balanced individual). But clearly, there is a severe mental toll, oddly underexamined in our sports-obsessed culture, that comes from a life of perpetually breaking the very limits of what it means to be human, with a human’s emotions and vulnerabilities."
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3 comments:
Temujin writes:
"The level of excellence and competitive drive that drove Michael Jordan is unnatural and exactly what separates the successful athletes from the once in a lifetime athletes. From good to great to The Greatest of All-Time level of athletes. Jordan. Lebron. Gretsky. Howe. Brady. Butkus. Ted Williams. Bob Gibson. Others. These people do it as kids, young people, mature adults and cannot let it go. When they are done playing, they have no idea what to do with that level of competitiveness. How did Dick Butkus stop hitting people? Gordie Howe? He couldn't stop. Not even with a metal plate inserted into his head. He played in the NHL from 1946-1980. Can you get your head around that? In one of the toughest, most brutal games there is, well before they even wore headgear or today's safety equipment.
"Simone Biles, while a champion and a great athlete, is not in the same conversation. She's normal. Or, 'Olympic level normal' as in someone who worked and practiced at her craft from the time she was a small child to today. But...Olympic athletes train to do it for one moment. Their careers are typically short, and then they move on with life. Same with most professional athletes. But for the greatest, there is no end. They are built differently. They exist to compete at the highest level everyday and to win at all costs. When the music stops, what do they do?
"Simone Biles is a champ, but not of the Michael Jordan level. Most are not. And most, do not walk around their mansions drinking large goblets of wine hating other people. (i.e.- see Charles Barkley as an example.)"
Mattman26 writes:
"The “unexamined” mental toll of striving for superhuman achievement for years on end?
"Strikes me as pretty obvious (which is why I’ve always aimed for the high end of mediocrity!)."
MikeR writes:
"It's probably worth mentioning that this triumph of mind over body is the whole point of sports. Who cares how fast a person runs? Your average rabbit can probably run a lot faster, how much more so the average shark. It's like the kids in the ghetto who race cockroaches. The amazing thing is when we see how a person can control her body in a way that seems superhuman.
That said, I don't think I'll ever watch gymnastics again. Way too dangerous."
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