Usain Bolt is insane for sure. He is an amazing track athlete and wants to pursue professional soccer in his retired years which is definitely impressive, but it may not be impressive to some.  Bolt has recently been offered a contract to play professional football but football athletes don’t seem to be okay with it. Professional football players have trained their whole lives meanwhile Bolt originally trained to be a track athlete.  In my opinion, it does not matter how long someone has trained for a specific sport to be a part of a professional team, what matters is whether they are good enough to play or not. If Bolt is able to keep up with the other football players, knows the rules of the game, etc., he should be allowed to play on a professional football team whether he has a lot of training or not.

I also believe that by Bolt being an extremely fast runner, he would be a good addition to any professional football team. If he is willing to train hard with the rest of the football team there should be no reason as to why he wouldn’t be allowed to play. It does not matter how long an athlete has been training to be on a professional team, if they are just as good as the rest then they should be allowed on. Bolt has been a professional athlete for several years so it is clear he has a lot of dedication which is important to have while being on a professional team.

Usain Bolt isn’t just great at track, he is great at running which is basically what football is all about. No, Bolt hasn’t had much training in football but he carries great athletic qualities that no team should turn down.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/former-irish-international-andy-keogh-slams-usain-bolt-for-having-a-touch-like-a-trampoline/news-story/e941319748e0aa999b156e8aa3b271b7

Is greatness related to championships? Does being on a great team mean you are an amazing athlete?  Many sports fans (and athletes!) measure the greatness of a team by how many championships a team has won. In my opinion, how great a team is can be measured by championships but individually it cannot. Let’s say this: Tony Gwynn was one of the best hitters in the history of baseball several years ago but was on one of the worst baseball teams, the San Diego Padres, whom have which won zero world series. It is clear here that Gwynn was a great athlete but because he is on the team, we classify this team as unsuccessful and therefore Gwynn has a negative reputation.

Most fans and sports teams really only care about the final outcome of the game, whether they win or lose, not about how great a certain player is doing at the time. If a great athlete is competing with athletes on their team that aren’t very good, then no their team isn’t so “great” but the individual athletes can be. According to Medical-Dictionary.com, an elite athlete is someone who plays on a professional or varsity team but never does it say an elite athlete is someone who is on a team that wins championships.

I also think that just because an athlete is on a great team, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are a great athlete.  For example, the New England Patriots are a great football team and win almost all of their games but that doesn’t mean every one of their players are amazing. There are players who never get to play a game and are always on the bench yet people classify them as great because they are on the Patriots.

Overall, I think we need to be more specific when people are trying to define greatness by championships. Team wise, yes we most certainly can, individually, we cannot.

Resources:

https://listosaur.com/sports/10-great-athletes-who-spent-most-of-their-careers-on-bad-teams/

After Kerry Perry, the CEO of USA gymnastics recently resigned, Mary Bono became the new CEO and there are already issues. Simone Biles, a Gold Medal Olympic gymnast, is not happy with the new CEO already. Mary Bono, posted a tweet that included a picture of her blacking out the Nike logo on her shoes in regards to Nike’s endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick. Biles is not impressed at Bono’s actions especially because USA Gymnastics is in desperate need for sponsors and Biles is a Nike athlete.

Although what Bono did will not help USA Gymnastics gain sponsors from Nike in any way, I believe that her actions were not unethical and she was just expressing her beliefs towards the whole situation. Also, Bono’s tweet was posted about a month before she was named CEO so its not as if she was doing it afterwards, taking advantages over the fact she was already named CEO. Bono posted it before and if there were any major disagreements towards her post, she wouldn’t have been named CEO.

Under Armour was a big sponsor for USA Gymnastics until the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal occurred but that is a huge reason as to why they lost a sponsor. Yes, I agree USA Gymnastics probably won’t be getting a sponsor from Nike anytime soon, but what Bono did will not jeopardize USA Gymnastics from receiving sponsors from anyone else.

Bono handled the situation very well and apologized to everyone as she stated she respects everyones views. In my opinion, USA gymnastics is in much better hands with their current CEO than they have for many years in the past and having a reliable CEO seems a lot more important right now than trying to gain sponsors.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a famous soccer player in Madrid but whether he is still considered a star athlete is the question. Several years ago, in 2005, the first allegations of rape against Ronaldo were made but why is Sports Media just posting about it now? Several people have placed a lot of pressure on the media outlets to post about these stories but it is just until now they have decided to do so. The stories remained hidden until 2017.

Sports Media has ignored several reported charges against Ronaldo and I believe that that is a huge problem we have in today’s society. Sports Media doesn’t want to post about the terrible things “star athletes” are doing because they want to help keep the reputations of those athletes. This is a terrible solution. Fans are not going to know why their favorite players are sitting out of games and they’re going to blame the wrong people, rather than blaming the athlete themselves. Just because an athlete is incredibly good at what they do, doesn’t mean they can get away with terrible things. Many fans seem to be mad at the coaches when they see that an athlete is sitting out of games but they don’t know the true story behind it because it is nowhere to be found in the media.

I think Sports Media is doing it wrong and they need to stop ignoring these accusations. Several readers, athletes, and fans are getting the wrong message and they need to know the truth. Sports Media is mostly run by men and these men are posting about what seems most important to them which looks like it is sports and the athletes that play those sports. There are times when everything is all about the athlete and how great they are but when they have done something completely wrong, this is when the articles need to talk about those things.

Resources:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/03/sexual-assault-victims-newsnight-media-blaming-victims

As I am in the process of training for a marathon myself, I stumbled upon an article that reads, “How Eliud Kipchoge smashed the marathon world record”. Eliud Kipchoge broke the world record finishing the marathon in 2 hours, 1 minute, and 39 seconds. I can’t even believe someone can run that fast. Kipchoge was running 4 minutes and 37 seconds per mile. As  I am reading this article, it mentions who the first to congratulate Kipchoge was and it was in fact the previous record holder, Dennis Kimetto. I find it very surprising that Kimetto was the first to congratulate him. In fact I am surprised he even congratulated him at all. Athletes are extremely competitive nowadays and it is hard for me to believe that Kimetto would be the first to reach out to Kipchoge in a positive manner. It is very inspiring to see that and it definately shows how humble Kimetto is.

On the other hand, athletes are constantly breaking world records one after the other. As the fitness industry is evolving, athletes are getting stronger. Each day someone finds a new or better fitness plan that people want to follow. Many years ago the fastest marathon time was no where close to where it is today. Today, there are more training resources available to athletes and now there are millions of people that run marathons each year. As technology is developing, athletes are getting faster and stronger.

Eliud Kipchoge finished the marathon with an extremely fast time but I don’t think that will be the last world record for marathon runners. Athletes are very competitive and I am sure there will be a new world record in the near future. Kipchoge even said himself that the world record will be broken again. Kipchoge says, “If you work hard you can achieve more” and by seeing several athletes each year continuing to work as hard as they can, Kipchoge’s world record will not be the last.

Resources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/almost-2-million-people-ran-us-half-marathon-last-yearand-most-them-were-women-180950504/

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/45579995

https://www.runnersworld.co.uk/training/motivation/the-marathon-record-will-be-broken-again-kipchoge-says