- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Roar Rookie
Joined July 2014
0
Views
0
Published
2
Comments
The older I get, the better I was...
Published
Comments
Ahh Le Prawn, always thinking with your… Prawn?
Good piece Mick!
It is nice to have an Australian GC contender who is magnanimous in defeat. Cuddles always struggled to look like he wasn’t making excuses after poor performances. Many times I wished he’d just say – “I didn’t have it…”. Porte doesn’t seem to be making excuses, but rather, explaining his performance. And, I don’t think it’s just that that he’s articulate enough to get away with it; it’s a true reflection of character. I was sad to see, via the race report the next day (getting too old to stay up these days – pathetic), that he’d had a bad day in the Alps and dropped off the podium, but I am proud of him for giving it everything he had on the day, and admitting that it wasn’t good enough.
Now James, about that hernia…
Le Tour sails past Porte, but his effort is no shipwreck
Clyde,
Of course you’re right to say that athletes are people, and subject to all the usual frailties. In addition they are generally very young, immature people, who are highly paid and generally the focus of ego boosting adulation, both from within and from outside their protective microcosms. We cannot, therefore, expect them not to make mistakes, and when they do make them, they generally go large!
In general I’m amazed that so many of these young blokes stay on the straight and narrow; at least to external appearances…
The problem is that the athletes you are talking about are professionals. Yes, this means that they get the money, and have to sign and adhere to contracts, but is also brings with it the obligation to act in a professional manner. Like Doctors, and Lawyers, and Teachers, there are certain aspects of behaviour that Professional Athletes are obliged to uphold.
Doctors and Lawyers are obliged to act in the best interests of their patients and client respectively. Teachers are not allowed to cross certain professional boundaries with their students. When they transgress these obligations, they are generally hauled before their governing bodies to account for their actions. If they are found to be in beach of their professional obligations they are punished, and if it is a criminal matter they are referred to the police. The excuse that they were not aware of their professional obligations, or would prefer not to be subject to them clearly does not wash in these circumstances.
Similarly professional athletes can be held accountable; because they are professionals. If they snort cocaine In the toilet of a popular restaurant, and they are caught, they will be judged and punished! Not knowing that it’s a problem, or preferring that it wasn’t won’t excuse them at that point.
That’s not to say that athletes need to be automatons. They can stand up for a cause and not be discredited. In the same way that Doctors, and Lawyers and Teachers stand up for forests, so to can Professional Athletes. Some of the cases you quote are perfect examples. But if they come out of the toilet still cleaning the white powder off from under their nose; all bets are off…
RATHBONE: Athletes are just people, so why expect them to be role models?