The paradox of sport stars

The recent Tiger Woods incident has highlighted a painful fact that great sportsmen are not necessarily great men. If anything, most of the guys at the top are terrible people.

Of the thousands that play tennis at a pro level, only one wins the Wimbledon. A nation of billion plus is represented by only 11 men at the national level. Getting to the top in sports requires talent, hard work, and a bit of luck. Talent and luck are to some extent predetermined, so the only thing a budding athlete can put in hard work and loads of them. And hard work is not simply hours of practice, but also developing a killer instinct to win, and at any cost. They develop a fiercely competitive spirit and seize on the slightest of opportunities. Even after reaching the top, these traits are required to stay there. The more physical a sport is, the more ruthless one needs to get. I am certain soccer players have the worst character record among top athletes. Even on the field, they resort to blatant cheating, be it diving for penalties or the use of hand. And until this recent incident, I thought golfers had the best one.

We, of course, are enamored by their successes and equate them to role models. But it is simply unfair to expect that they will smoothly metamorphose from ruthless animals to stellar human beings. Of course there are certain exceptions who readily come to mind. But they are just that - exceptions, who are born with incredible talent and put in an extraordinary amount of hard work. They only needed to remain focused, not become ruthless, to get to where they are. But the majority has had to scrounge for opportunities and capitalize on them at any cost. It is the survival of the fittest and the fittest are not necessarily the best.