Is Your Loyalty Card Up To Date?

Jun 5 • Analysis, School • 4654 Views • Comments Off on Is Your Loyalty Card Up To Date?

Is Your Loyalty Card Up To Date?

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”

― James Baldwin

It seems obvious that a positive role model is a good thing, but have you ever stopped and wondered why? What are the benefits of having a role model and how do you respond if your role model lets you down?

In today’s society, many people look to professional athletes to provide more than just entertainment. Young children especially, view many athletes as role models and want to emulate the way these stars dress, act and live their lives. While some athletes aren’t deserving of their “role model” status, others act like role models and are responsible community citizens.

From placing people on a pedestal through their achievements to them falling into the pit through personal failures or doping. Do we distinguish between the athletes who have attained their fame and achievements through raw talent, hard work and sacrifices but then fail in their personal life, and those who have cheated to attain fame and success? What happens in our loyalty and moral shift?

Let’s specifically address a few sports figures who have let society down. We have experienced a variety of poor behavior from our sports celebrities ranging from lying, cheating, abuse, murder, suicide and infidelity.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Irish swimmer Michelle Smith came under suspicion of using performance enhancing drugs after her performances brought her from an average swimmer to winning four medals at the games. In 1998, Smith received a four-year ban after missing a number of drugs tests and adding whisky to a urine test in an attempt to hide her use of steroids.

Joost VD Westhuizen is a former South African rugby union footballer who was the Springboks’ first choice scrum-half in the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s. He was capped 89 times for the Springboks and scored 38 tries and was the captain of the Springbok rugby team. In February 2009, Rapport newspaper and Heat magazine reported that they had video evidence of him allegedly engaging in sex play with a mystery blonde and snorting a white substance.

December 2009 Tiger Woods admitted to being unfaithful to his wife with several women. He describes his failure well when he said, “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to, I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish.”

Trauma can be described as an abnormal experience, experienced by normal people. When this happens there are numerous forms of support, by way of counselling and guidance, the individuals can draw from, to help them on their journey to recovery.

When young athletes reach a level of fame however, it comes with media attention, large financial benefits and social attention. This too could be described as abnormal experiences happening to normal people. The difference is that most of the attention that these individuals receive is positive but, is there support to assist these individuals to cope effectively with their fame and fortune or when their lives become unmanageable?

When Oscar Pistorius had his boating accident and several empty bottles of alcohol were found on the boat, there was no warning taken, instead the incident was swept under the rug. Money can hide a host of misdemeanors which is what happened with the boating incident, resulting in the possibility that he may have taken on the “God like” complex similar to Woods. However Pistorius’s actions resulted in fatal consequences. If Oscar would have accepted help and guidance, perhaps his life would be back on track instead of the court room.

I believe that there is good and bad in everyone, so when our icons disappoint us let’s not allow our dreams to be shattered, but focus on their good qualities and aspire for the good that they have achieved. Understand, acknowledge and learn from their mistakes, let them take responsibility for their choices and negative actions. Enjoy the benefits that your sport brings you, and remember that you are in control of the choices that you make.