What Is An Athlete Anyway?

I was thinking about the concept of the athlete after writing about a potential honor code in athletics. What exactly is an athlete? Merriam-Webster defines athlete as "a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina." This is a purely physical definition however; today, we expect athletes to be much more than just physically talented people. They should have some level of moral and ethical behavior as well as being a talented enough orator to handle the often overly critical media with grace and charisma. However, is this expecting too much from these athletes who are still obviously human? I think about how, in high school and college, the athlete needs to hold his or her grades up as well as perform at a high level on the court or field. However, what if the most talented athlete in the school had no desire to study? He or she would not be able to play on the team and therefore could not be an athlete representing that school. I think that these measures are valuable as they encourage the athlete to be more than just an athlete. We all get sick of hearing the term "student-athlete" because it is long and somewhat awkward, but that is what we expect of athletes while they are in school. They should be able to perform as a student as well as an athlete. I do not know what you would term a professional athlete because we expect them to obviously be an athlete as well as a role model or perhaps an example. Therefore, should the athlete be termed as the "example-athlete?" Personally, I think that even if we do not use this term, the athlete should be aware of the position that he or she holds. When I was a young child, I conformed to the rest of society by saying that Michael Jordan was my favorite player. I never raised him to the idol-like level as some people did, but in the mid-90s, who didn't want to Be Like Mike? With a player with such great media exposure, he or she will be will be perceived as a role model to follow even if he or she hasn't done anything worthy of following (this is a general statement, not targeted at Michael Jordan). Here is where the problem lies; some athletes who are perceived as role models are really not people children should be emulating. How to solve this? It is either going to take a change of the values of professional athletes or a more discerning eye from the public to see through the athletes who are just plain athletes, not "example-athletes." There are plenty of role models in the world today, but not everyone who happens to be in the news and be extraordinarily talented in one area is by necessity a perfect example to follow otherwise.
© 2009 Jean-Marc Kuffer / CC BY 2.0

Athletic Honor Code

I have been reading a lot about academic honor codes recently for a group presentation on Thursday night. For those of you who don't know, the idea of an honor code is that the student can be trusted to be honest and that based on their word, the professor will know that the student did not plagiarize or cheat in some other way. Although you may say that this would not work because some people have no problem with lying, it works surprisingly well on campuses that utilize this technique. However, I was wondering how you expand this idea of an honor code to the athletic world. Let's face it, the athlete is under constant scrutiny from everyone concerning steroid use or his or her personal life. Ben Roethlisberger has recently been threatened with a charge of sexual assault. Obviously, he said he did not do it. The charges were never filed because there was a lack of sufficient proof. Therefore, we have reached the same conclusion we would have reached if we could have taken Ben on his word. However, if we are operating under the assumption that Ben was honest, then the lady obviously violated this honor code because this scenario would have her being incorrect. Therefore, who do we trust? I would like to say that everyone can be trusted and tell the truth even if they're in the wrong because they should know it's the right thing to do. However, this does bother me somewhat because we are saying that we can trust a bunch of college students but not grown athletes. I realize that we do need to keep our eyes on people simply because people mess up all the time, but it is a shame people continue to put themselves in situations where these types of accusations (which are often well-founded) endanger their image and the image of the sport as well.
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