9 stereotypes about athletes – true or false? Athletes themselves tell us

There are many stereotypes and attitudes surrounding the profession of an athlete, which only the athletes themselves are able to confirm or deny. We asked Vera Biryukova and Alyona Kostornaya to comment on some of them.

Athletes have one way – coaching

Single figure skater, European champion

This is far from true. Athletes have a lot of ways to develop. The main thing is desire and aspiration.

gymnast, champion of the 2016 Summer Olympics, Honored Master of Sports

No, no and no. This is a one-sided judgment, and multiple facts about athletes say the opposite. You need to listen to yourself, to develop in what is interesting. It is interest and love for what you do that leads to the cause of life, to success. If you want to train and bring up champion women, you are welcome. If you want something else, you are welcome.

Athletes are uneducated and stupid

Vera: Let me put it this way, uneducated and stupid are not related to sports, but to what is inherent in a person from childhood, what people surround him, what values he has, what task he sets for himself and where he aspires to go.

It’s always interesting to see who these people are who give such a verdict. Yes, athletes may have less time for education due to the many hours of training every day, but no one has canceled books, which sometimes give more knowledge than in some schools. And then – everyone learns. I don’t have a single athlete I know who kicks the air.

Alyona: I can’t agree here either. Now every athlete is trying to get an education – and more than one. And not only in the field of sports.

All athletes are strong

Vera: I think so. Sport develops a core in a person. Again, provided that the person was engaged in sports, and not under its cover.

Alyona: Yes, sport develops not only physical data, but also mental health.

Sportswomen can’t be feminine

Alyona: Al most all sportswomen wear makeup in everyday life. In dresses and shoes they all look very harmonious. No one sometimes will not even guess that there is an athlete in front of them. So it’s definitely a myth.

Vera: What about Sharapova, Utyasheva, Kabaeva, Chashchina, Efimova, Spiridonova, Klishina, Zagitova, Mamun, Sotnikova? Stop me.

Professional sports are bad for your health

Vera: It’s harmful to live in a vacuum. Life will pass you by. And traumatism can be both in ordinary life and in professional sports. Of course, I would like to see more attention paid to recovery moments in professional sports. Not to wait for something to fly, but to take the time for preventative and conscious hours of training. Athletes should know their body’s capabilities from childhood, know how to utilize resources and potential, know how to apply force or bring themselves to calmness.

Alyona: Professional sport is really not about health. Often the desire to do better than the competition can lead to terrible consequences that have to be corrected in the doctors’ office.

Athletes don’t know how to do anything else, they only train, eat and sleep

Alyona: It all depends on the person. If he wants to try and improve, he can do a lot of things. And if a person has decided that he wants to live a limited life, then no. It doesn’t matter if he is an athlete or not. He will never learn anything that way.

All athletes have the perfect body

Vera: All people have an ideal body at birth, but then they start to remake it: someone by food, someone by bad habits, someone by laziness. In athletes, with a competent load, the body becomes relief, the skin becomes taut, and good stretching is important for the body as a whole. For someone it is ideal, someone is closer to another type. Everyone’s ideal body is different.

No pain – no result. To achieve results, an athlete must “suffer” the victory

Alyona: It is not necessary to suffer, but nobody says it will be easy.

Vera: “Suffer the victory” sounds a bit pathos. Any victory of an athlete – it is deserved and went through fire, water and copper pipes. And for each athlete these obstacles are different. One thing I can say with certainty: only through labor, courage, faith, confidence and love for their sport a person comes to their victories.

All children should be put into sports, it is good for everyone

Vera: Naturally, I am personally in favor of sports. But professional or not – it’s up to parents to decide. It is a huge labor, and parents share with their child all the difficulties, successes and failures, ups and downs. If we talk about sports as a way to maintain the body, about its usefulness, both physiologically and psychologically, I would make physical education at school one of the important lessons.

Alyona: Not for everyone. If a child really wants it, it makes sense. And if he has other hobbies – no. In any case, it is worth listening to your child’s wishes.