analysis
In sports, people sometimes push boundaries, so does Ryan Crouser. He started and won the World Cup in shot put – although he had a blood clot shortly before. When do you have to brake athletes? ARD athletics expert Frank Busemann asks himself that.
It is generally said that sport is healthy. But when we look at Budapest for the World Championships, we quickly realize that this is not the case in particular. Competitive sport is a borderline burden that squeezes exponential performance from last few percentage points. That’s why competitive athletes quickly hear muscle fibers coughing, which Erna from the Finnenbahn doesn’t even know.
It is the dilemma of high-performance sport, the athlete must be 100 percent convinced that everything will work out and that nothing will happen to him on the way to success, but he must have such incredibly fine antennae for himself and his body that he can recognize every signal evaluates and utilizes that this sometimes stands in his way.
blood clot? Crouser starts anyway
Just like the days of the world record holder Ryan Crouser. The day before the shot put competition, he took to social media with a black and white image describing his last 20 days. Pain in the calf turned out to be a blood clot. Panic and desperation spread. The doctor examined him, treated him and told him that he had to decide for himself whether to start.
And what is he doing? Of course it starts. There’s no other way, that’s how athletes are. That’s not healthy and reasonable. But you could also see the desperation in his post. Now that he’s won, maybe you could say he wasn’t in a good mood and wanted to make the field a little nervous? The victory distance of 23.51 meters and almost a world record speak more for the fact that he pulled himself together out of sheer fear and was really scared. Autonomous reserves are there to escape the saber-toothed tiger in the face of death.
For the athlete, there is only the here and now
The question then always arises: How far can the athlete go, when do you have to slow him down? Are athletes in competitive mode sane or do they need a guardian? For the athlete there is only the here and now, the focus of his life is sport. Everything is subordinate to this one goal, everything is condensed into these one or two days and suddenly the body goes on strike. That must not be.
When I had to realize at the age of 25 that the body is not infinitely resilient, it was a fundamental shock. Until then, I thought that time heals all wounds, otherwise an operation will help. Was probably nothing. At some point it’s over and then comes the big bludgeon. A wise realization that hit me like lightning helps me today as a health athlete to pay more attention to the body. But I do abs-legs-buttocks and go jogging. I’m not running a world record. And I have three children. I have to take care of myself. Competitive athletes can, may and only do so to a limited extent.
adrenaline pumping discernment
Pain is a constant companion, first class performance is not normal. Still, they have to keep their bodies to a minimum and we see that here in Budapest.
Many recognize their own responsibility towards themselves, can estimate very well how much they can burden themselves with the pain, others try to estimate this, although their judgment is adrenaline-charged. But deep down, competitive athletes are optimists who think it’ll work out. Otherwise they wouldn’t win. There is no other way. But it’s difficult. Damn hard.