Being Elite

What defines an elite athlete? Is it the number of hours an athlete logs toward training and competing? Is it the level at which they compete at? Or, is it the amount of success they have gained at that level? The McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine (2002) defines an elite athlete as "an athlete with potential for competing in the Olympics or as a professional athlete."

There is a debate of whether early specialization in sport is the most beneficial way to turn young athletes into elite athletes as adults. Although there is evidence to support the correlation of quantity of hours trained and success levels, early specialization can pose many negative consequences. These consequences can include burnout, staleness, and a lack of social growth which may lead to social isolation. According to Joseph Baker (2003), from his paper on Early Specialization in Youth Sport: a requirment for adult expertise? he states, "perhaps the most damaging evidence against advocating the early specialization approach concerns sport dropout. Investigations of participants who drop out of sport have consistently indicated that lack of fun or enjoyment is a predominant motive for discontinuing participation in a given sport." I think anyone who has grown up playing sports has experianced or seen drop out happen. Whether it is because of a loss of interest, pressure from social factors (i.e. parents) or lack of enjoyment, it happens in every sport in various situations.

Baker (2003) proposed that, "diversified involvement in a number of sports during early stages of development has been presented as a possible alternative to early specialization." Diversified involvement involves children exploring various sports and activities to develop fundamental motor sills rather then the idea of specialization at an early age where the child only focuses on developing the skills directly to one specific sport. I believe the idea of diversified involvement is very important as between the ages of nine and twelve is one of the most crucial time periods for children to develop fundamental motor skills. These fundamental skills include jumping, hopping, bounding, running and throwing. These introduce the ABC's of athleticism, which are agility, balance, coordination and speed. All these skills need to be developed before a child specializes in order to set the foundation to be a successful atlete. "In a recent study of expert decision makers from the sports of basketball, netball and field hocket, Baker et al. (2003) indicated that participation in other relevant activites (e.g. other sports where dynamic decision-making is necessary) during early phases of development augmented the physical and cognitive skills necessary in their primary sport (Baker, 2003).

I took a coaching class at the University of Alberta that consisted all of either varisity athletes, or individuals that grew up playing sports at a competitve level. 60% of the students said they participated in more then three sports or leisure activites before the age of 12, myself included. Now in no way would I define myself as an elite athlete. On average I spend ten hours a week during my varsity soccer season training, practicing and competing. But having said that I would consider myself just below an elite athlete that has achieved success competing at a high level. Although I started soccer at a young age I did not start specializing until the age of 14. This was after I was able to experiance years of dance, gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, and a few other team sports. Being able to generalize and experiment with these various sports allowed me to develop my fundamental motor skills which has greatly contributed to my success as an athlete today.

"Barynina and Vaisekhovsii's (1992) study of elite swimmers indicated that athletes who specialized early spent less time on the national team and ended their sports careers earlier than athletes who specialized later (Baker, 2003)." I am interested to see what the statistics are for elite athletes and in particular the World Cup players in terms of whether they took the path of early specialization or diversificarion as these professionals are considered some of the most elite athletes in the world in my opinion.

Cost of the Cup

It is hard to come to Brazil with the excitement and anticipation of the World Cup and think of the people of Brazil that it has truly affected the most. I think people come from all over the world painting their faces and wearing their countries flags on their backs to show up to a newly built stadium to watch their national team in the biggest football tournament. Some come by motor home, stay on the beach and all they see is the road from their party on Copacabana to the game at the newly renovated Maracana Stadium. Others fly into the airport, taxi to their hotel, which is located very close to the stadium and only travel to and from because they are concerned with their safety. Do any of these people really see what has happened behind the scenes or considered the costs that have gone into everything to make the experience everything it can be for these tourists? I know coming I certainly didn't. I had no idea the numbers that not only went into the stadiums but the airports, hotels, road construction and advertisements. Not only does there need to be money spent on health care, education and transportation but also in the local favelas. I was able to see firsthand some of the living conditions and poverty in one of the local favelas while helping with an organization called Football for Kids (#cheerforpeace.)  

According to the article A Brief History of Soccer Stadiums in Brazil (2014), by Antonio Holzmeister, John Bale purposes that there are four stages of stadiums. The "fourth stage corresponds to the modern soccer stadium, now built out of concrete instead of wood, guided by a disciplinary logic, with internal TV circuits and a fully segregated public, each having its own sector within the stadium according to the price of the ticket." (p. 66) These are the kinds of stadiums that have been built for the 2014 World Cup being hosted in Brazil. Throughout the country there are 12 host cities where games are being played in either new or redeveloped stadiums.  From How the cost of Brazil's World Cup stacks up against other global sporting events an article from the Business Spectator, Harrison Polities said, "the government spent an estimated $US11 billion to renovate existing stadiums, build new sporting grounds and reinforce core infrastructure ahead of the event." Below is a picture of how this World Cup relates to other sporting events around the world. 

 

Because of the construction of these stadiums this is what most of the riots are being directed toward. It is not the cup itself being hosted in Brazil that upsets the majority of Brazil but the copious amounts of dollars that are being spent on the construction of these stadiums. One particular example of a stadium that is being renovated is the Bezarrão stadium in Brasilia. Holzmeister states, "one such expenditure for public works serving mostly as political propaganda for local politicians and governments was the Bezarrão stadium, in Brasilia, which consumed 50 million reals (roughly 25 million Canadian dollars) of public coffers in order to renovate a stadium that, at most, will be used as a training camp during the World Cup." This is a shocking number to me, especially in the way that it is being used. To invest that much money into a stadium that will be used for training when there are so many other areas that need this money both surprises and disappoints me.

How is a country able to justify spending these dollars on stadiums that will only be used for training centres or three to five World Cup games then have no use. Manaus, Cuiabá and Rio Branco, are three cities with no professional soccer played, but each had a newly built stadium for the Cup. I talked to lady who lived in Curitiba her whole life and grew up both adoring and playing football. We had a conversation while watching a World Cup game on a small restaurant screen in Curitiba that was being played in Manaus. I asked her, her opinion on Brazil hosting the World Cup thinking she would be thrilled and proud because she made it obvious that she loved soccer. Her response to my question was, "It is very hard for me to give a straight answer. I love football, I always have and always will. Of course I am happy that my country is able to host it. But, from the other side people are dying every day here in the streets, education is very, very expensive and Curitiba is the only place with a good transportation system. If I go to Rio, even though I am native to Brazil, I find it very difficult to get around. The government has taken one billion reals away from the people to invest in the construction of the Arena da Amazonia stadium in Manaus. After the cup is over there will be no use for this stadium as there is no team or league that plays in this area." Like the stadium in Brasilia there is so much money and resources being invested into something that will hardly be used in only a matter of three and a half weeks when this whole World Cup craze is over. 

This 2014 World Cup may be similar to the 2016 Olympics when billions of dollars will be spent on building infrastructures like field hockey and rugby stadiums when Brazil does not even have a population that participates in these sports. Like the stadium in Manaus these infrastructures will have no use. Should these buildings be built just for the sake of entertainment for a few short weeks? Someone to think about! 

A Game, A Sport, A Lifestyle

         Coming to Brazil I thought football would be a part of everyone's national identity. Kids playing on the street, everyone wearing green and yellow and every TV tuned into a local or professional game. Researching it a bit since I've been here proves that in 1950 when Brazil hosted the World Cup it truly was a part of their national identity. But, walking around the streets of Curitiba and watching local news channels has proved a little different. There's no doubt that there is a huge hype about the upcoming World Cup, but digging a little deeper there is more then just the advertisements and excitement that we see on the surface. It seems that this sense of national pride and identity that football once brought is being overshadowed by more important issues like the billions of tax dollars that are being spent on the construction of stadiums when it's education, transportation and health care that really need the funding in the peoples eyes. I may have come to Brazil a bit naive on how important football was to some but to many I didn't even imagine how much it truly means to them and affects them. 

         Over the past week we've been fortunate enough to visit a local professional club, Coritiba, and listen to guest speakers from another club, Athleteco and private University POCI. Through all these experiences there was one underlying message. It was made clear that to many young kids football is not just a matter of having fun on the streets or even just a part of their identity. To some it's their whole life. Kids have a dream that football is their ticket out of poverty and into a life of riches and success. There are the stories of players like Ronaldo and Neymar who started off poor and on the streets but through football achieved great success. These are the stories that give kids in favelas and poor communities the hope of using soccer as a gateway out of their current life situation. The sad reality is that this happens to a very small percentile and in the end they are left with nothing. 

      The article Youth Soccer in Brazil far Different than in Yakima Valley, by Ross Courtney, describes two teenage boys that hope to follow a similar path that both Ronaldo and Pele did to find success. "In Brazil, teenage boys commonly move far away from their families to nurture their professional dreams. They train three hours a day, lift weights and bunk in dormitories."  These children that leave their families and move away from their homes give up everything to get to a training facility at a professional club. Once they are there they have not only left their families behind but at the age of fourteen put their education to a halt. This can be a very dangerous decision. 

        "Behind the romance, Dumunt and countless other Brazilian boys are living a gritty, sacrificial side of youth soccer that American fans don't always see. Scouts for professional clubs find the best players, pluck them from those streets and train them as miniature pros." The goal of these academies is not to develop well rounded academic athletes that have a back up plan if football does not work out for them. Their goal is to develop these boys into professional footballers that can be sold to European teams to make a profit. If three years into a boys training the club loses interest in the player or sees no future for him in football he will just be released. At this time he has invested everything into his football career and often has nothing to go back to. No back up plan, and years behind in education. In regards to having a back up plan Pedro Isidore states, "I don't think about it, football is enough." Sadly there is an abundance of kids that get scouted and train at these professional academies but the reality is that less then 2% make it professional. That means for that 2% the risk of leaving behind everything was well worth it, but for the other 98% they have nothing to go back to and often go to drugs and crime. 

        I came with the stigma that everything right now would be related to the World Cup and how football would prove to be a part of Brazil's national identity. I didn't even consider how on a smaller nation wide scale football could have such an immense impact on teenagers lives everyday in this country.