Please define "athlete"

Gant Grimes · 07-10-2008, 10:31 AM

This will probably piss some off. I've always thought of an athlete as one who does something beyond training just for the sake of training. I've seen some people who can destroy a metcon workout but couldn't catch their ass with both hands.

If you're a guy or girl who can do 30 rounds of Cindy but trips on his or her feet on the way to the water fountain, I have a hard time calling you an athlete. Am I off base here?

Dave Van Skike · 07-10-2008, 10:57 AM

yes...

yes....

No.

Derek Weaver · 07-10-2008, 10:57 AM

Nah, I'd say you pretty much nailed it. Though, people tend to look at CF as sport, and as such, consider themselves athletes.

I've had a hard time wrapping my head around that one at times too...

Pat McElhone · 07-10-2008, 10:59 AM

I concur. One of the many things that may have been lost as CF grew was the premise of playing actual sports (I do not think Fitness was determined to be a sport in Oct 2002). This is in CFJ#2.

A little off this topic but, Track and Field is called "Athletics" outside this country.

John Alston · 07-10-2008, 11:06 AM

Fitness is not a sport, just like Strength is not a sport. Nor is balance.
Athlete, to me, is someone who plays a competitive (at least at some level, even a low competition level) sport.

Dave Van Skike · 07-10-2008, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Alston

Fitness is not a sport, just like Strength is not a sport. Nor is balance.
Athlete, to me, is someone who plays a competitive (at least at some level, even a low competition level) sport.

Isn't this the whole reason for the cross fit games? to give those people a venue for competition? I mean, I think it's sort of ridiculous given the scaricity of competitions but whatever, if people can invent new religions, why not a sport to go along with it? fair enough,

highland games and strongman probably started with two yokels hefting rocks and throwing sticks...

Scott Kustes · 07-10-2008, 11:30 AM

I like Charles Staley's much less scientific and philosophical approach to it:

Quote:

-Developing an unnatural mindset — everything from becoming mentally tough, open-minded, goal-directed, and laser-focused. You might even develop an autotellic approach to training: doing things for the love of doing them, rather than only for the secondary gain. The “naturals” among us can’t wait to get finished — the “unnaturals” can’t wait to get started.

I think saying, "If you don't play a competitive sport, you're not an athete" is part of the problem in our society whereby athletes are people wholly different than the rest of us. Is running a 5k competitive enough? How do we set that threshold? What is "competitive enough"?

Frankly, to me, if you're out there improving your fitness, not just so you can down a pint of Haagen-Dazs at night, but because you genuinely love being active, striving to be stronger/faster/etc, and competing, even if just against yourself, you're an athlete. I don't see a need to set some arbitrary bar to the term just so we can disclude some from calling themselves as such. Athlete is a mindset more than anything.

Gant Grimes · 07-10-2008, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Alston

Fitness is not a sport, just like Strength is not a sport. Nor is balance.
Athlete, to me, is someone who plays a competitive (at least at some level, even a low competition level) sport.

So it's the application of one or more components of fitness that makes a thing a sport and a person an athlete. A girl that has great balance is not an athlete; that same girl, walking on a 4" beam and doing flips is an athlete. The strongest guy in the gym who just lifts for the hell of it is not an athlete; the scrawny guy who is training specifically for a powerlifting meet (using periodization, selecting opening lifts, etc.) is an athlete.

I can go wtih that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Van Skike

highland games and strongman probably started with two yokels hefting rocks and throwing sticks...

That, IMO, is the essence of athletic competition, an ancient sport born from necessity. In the early days, there was a need to run, wrestle, and fight. There was--and still is--a need to left heavy stones and hit other people with sticks.

Garrett Smith · 07-10-2008, 11:46 AM

I don't compete in anything anymore, however, if someone decided to say that I wasn't "athletic" (and hence, an "athlete"), I would highly disagree.

Dave Van Skike · 07-10-2008, 11:49 AM

The Teddy rule....

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

one can be athletic...like an athlete...

one can be a former athlete...

but...Athletes compete.