What is an athlete?

[TPrewittMD]

Rip, how do you define an athlete? Do we declare ourselves to be athletes, or do we earn that designation?

[Mark Rippetoe]

An athlete is a competitor, one way or another. With others in a sport that has a quantifiable way of beating another competitor in a contest whose outcome is determined by a physical effort (bodybuilding doesn't count), or perhaps in a similar contest with one's self, one becomes an athlete.

[Gary Gibson]

There are those who say that powerlifters aren't athletes. I believe the people who say that should be treated the same as people who squat high and lie about their numbers; they should be punched hard in the face and as frequently as it takes to correct their behavior.

Athletes are what Coach Rippetoe said, but I humbly add that they should be considerably better at their chosen exertions than the average person would be. Until one is demonstrably stronger/faster/nimbler, then one is simply training in hopes of one day becoming an athlete. It's sort of like trying to figure out exactly "when" one becomes a carpenter or a musician or a scientist. There are grades of skill as well as designations bestowed in recognition of a level of proficiency.

[Mark Rippetoe]

But who gets to decide how much better, Gary?

[justinbass]

But who gets to decide how much better, Gary?

I do.

[kfreeman]

This is becoming some serious Tao type socratic dialogue. Perhaps the most important thing required of an athlete is a desire to truly push himself. This would be the thing that sets the naturally gifted and lazy apart from the normal person who kills himself to get under, over, or past, whatever his sport requires of him... Eventually the true athlete stops "doing" his sport and starts to live it in everything he does.

[TPrewittMD]

What would be the standards for proficiency? Do standards vary from sport to sport?

My 14 year old daughter is a great skier and skied the Birds of Prey downhill at Beaver Creek (home of world championship a few years ago) at age 10. She is much faster than most adults on the slope. But she has never raced or been timed. Is she an athlete?

My son, age 15, began wrestling just this past year. Compared to the other kids here in wrestling country (Stillwater, OK), he was way behind. Nevertheless, with a lot of work, he actually won one match at the varsity level and a few at j.v., but lost much more than he won. Is he an athlete?

Is the 52 y.o. overweight smoking golfer who does no exercise other than hit range balls but wins the club tournament an athlete?

When John Kruk was an All Star first baseman for the Phiilies, he would smoke in the dugout and was famous for being portly. In an interview, he was asked about professional athletes and smoking. His response was, "I am not an athlete, I am a baseball player." Is Kruk correct?

[rocko]

I read an article by Charles Staley where we described the importance of training like an athlete. What if you trained this way, always challenging yourself to beat your previous records as if you were in a competition with yourself. Would that make you an athlete?

[Steve Hill]

It's sort of like trying to figure out exactly "when" one becomes a carpenter or a musician or a scientist. There are grades of skill as well as designations bestowed in recognition of a level of proficiency.

Those designations are already taken care of. Many athletes show up to competition. There is 1 winner (in individual competition) and 3 medalists. But they are all athletes.

[kfreeman]

Does any of this matter? Really?