[Closed] Why do athletes talk about sacrifices?

you sacrifice a lot socially.

I have a couple of guys on my uni course who are aiming to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in 2014. The training they are doing is immense. They miss out on their social life because of it. For a couple of fit good looking 20yr old guys that must be a big sacrifice.

it's all about superstition

you start off wearing lucky pants but soon enough you're out at full moon with your full voodoo shit - dagger and a local virgin

Even training to compete at an amateur level involves effort and time and I would say sacrifice.

To do it professionally takes that to the max, do you think just because you like riding your bike that it would all be great fun?

I see where don is coming from on this one. It's not a sacrifice, it's a choice. In the example about, do they want to trail or do they want to go out drinking and getting laid? Is it a sacrifice if they have to choose between the two? Some people only get one of those as an option. Some people I knew at Uni couldn't even manage one of those. I'm pretty sure they'd love to be in a position where they have to make such a sacrifice. WE all have to make choices in life, some times we get to do fun stuff, some times we don't.

I expect you sacrifice a normal career, possibly a family too. You just don't have a normal life. Pretty big sacrifice if you ask me.

Onzadog's got it, it's a choice not a sacrifice.

what exactly is a normal life? a normal career? normal family???
it's all life isn't it???
and one way of life isn't necessary better or worse than another.

If you say it can't be a sacrifice because it was a choice then the word sacrifice has no meaning?

I thought it was to do with the damage all the drugs did to you.

To use a painfully obvious and seasonally appropriate example, Christ had a choice, he could have just left everyone to it and been a happy carpenter. But, he made a choice - which was also a sacrifice.

Just because you choose to sacrifice something doesn't mean its any less of a sacrifice?

They have to give up a lot of what most people take for granted.

If you say it can't be a sacrifice because it was a choice then the word sacrifice has no meaning?

No, because if someone does something that they don't want to do, we have a sacrifice. So what they're saying is that they'd rather go for a pint with their mates and don't really want to train.

I sacrificed a top sporting career* for the sake of beers and inertia and then family life

* yeah, I could've been ..

I enjoy cycling and I do it a lot. However I don't spend every waking hour preparing myself for competition.

I don't stick to strict diets
I don't have to watch any medication I take
I havn't been doing this from the age of 12
My parents didn't give up on any kind of normal life to ferry me to competitions or put all their money into my skill/talent/sport

Perhaps they enjoy riding their bike, so that's not a sacrifice. But giving up alcohol, friends, family, travelling constantly, verging on malnourished etc are all sacrifices.

I think this is a daft thread, I think everyone makes sacrifices. I could live off dole money, or work 3 days a week in a bike shop and do more riding, for that I'd sacrifice a nice flat, holidays and disposable income. Instead I sacrifice spare time to have a proper job! If you don't see that as sacrifice then fair enough, but it's naive to think that a pro athlete hasnt had to give up anything they love for their career.

If you can't see the sacrifice it only means you have no idea what it take to be a top athlete.

njee, I agree - but that is the point - everyone can only live 1 life and they sacrifice other possibilities to do so. Hence we all agree here, whether or not we recognise it

If you can't see the sacrifice it only means you have no idea what it take to be a top athlete.

You are, of course, 100% correct. Do I know you?

everybody makes sacrifices in life...how much does a professional athlete train a week, 35-40hours, how is that different to anyone elses working life?

If I gave up work to help starving orphans in Africa for no reward, I would expect people to consider that I'd made a sacrifice. If I gave up my 40 hrs a week job to train full time and reap the accolades and financial rewards of a pro footballer. I would not expect people to give my thought to my sacrifices.

Its a soundbite for the media. They don't mean it, its just the only answer to some of the vapid questions from some brainless turnip writing for their rag.

the truth would be a far less interesting answer..

If you like cycling, you cycle. It is something you've chosen in place of other things.

Cyclists tend to die early. That's a fair sacrifice. Gymnasts end up pubescent midgets. Motorcyclists end their careers full of metal with missing fingers, if they're lucky. Rugby players end up with no teeth and comedy ears.

The list is endless. Being fit is really bad for your health.

I think that to do the amount of training required to be an endurance athlete takes alot out of your body. You may like cycling to start with but I expect in the volumes done to compete internationally it looses its shine.

A guy I work with trains seriuosly as a runner. He holds down a demanding full time job and sticks to a strcit training regime, stopped only but ill health. For example he had to travel to a relatives funeral on the day he was sceduled for a long run. So he got up at 4 in the morning

Whether you choose to call it sacrifice is upto you. I think its different from the way most people excercise in that you have to train when you don't feel like it to get to where you need to be.

how is that different to anyone elses working life?

If you have ever ran 80 mpw (very modest by elite running standards) then you will know the diference. You go to bed exhausted and wake up tired, then start again!
You have no time to socialise outside of family and running mates, if you have a job then it becomes even more difficult and tiring.

So he got up at 4 in the morning

Whether you choose to call it sacrifice is upto you. I think its different from the way most people excercise in that you have to train when you don't feel like it to get to where you need to be.

Nobody put a gun to his head to make him get up at 4am, so it's his choice and therefore something he would prefer to do other things as the rewards of success are worth the effort. Where's the sacrifice? I think some folks are putting their values onto others and come up with sacrifice... 😀

But that's the point. No one puts a gun to your head and makes you go to work. Are you honestly saying you don't sacrifice anything to work? Would you not enjoy the extra time if you didn't?

I made a change and a choice and as a result enjoy my work. I suppose I'm lucky in that respect. My choice, no sacrifice. Would I want to work for idiots, giving up my principles, flogging my guts for a huge salary. That would be rather stupid, no?
But I wasn't talking about me, if I were an athlete and wanted to win races, I would do the appropriate training and wouldn't consider it a sacrifice
Many top level athletes have fame, wealth, friends and families so don't appear to have sacrificed much, do they?
If you consider that you are making sacrifices, might I suggest that you make some changes. 🙂

@ don s - would you continue in yr job if you, say, won ten million on the lottery ?

Maybe, and that is an honest answer, more towards a yes. 10 million would allow for new and untried opportunities to be tried. It doesn't mean I'm making sacrifices though.

I'd kind of agree with the OP..

If you're obsesed enough to get to the top level of something in your mind you're not making any sacrafices.

I made it to world championsip level without making many sacrifices.
i wanted to ride so that's what i did.

As soon as my priorities changed i was no longer good enough for that level of competition so i could do other stuff without any worries about it.

don you don't call it sacrifice thats fine

don simon - Member

"No, because if someone does something that they don't want to do, we have a sacrifice. So what they're saying is that they'd rather go for a pint with their mates and don't really want to train."

Absolutely that's what they're saying. Now if someone says "I never had any mates and didn't want a normal social life so I took up running" that's no sacrifice, but if they made the choice and know what they've lost and wish they hadn't had to do it, that's a sacrifice.

but if they made the choice and know what they've lost and wish they hadn't had to do it, that's a sacrifice.

The thing is though they did make that choice and wouldn't have if they didn't think it was better than the run of the mill stuff that other people were doing.

Eh? I'm sitting here working, I could be in a bar getting shedfaced, but I'm not. I could be doing any number of things that I know exist but because I'm not doing them I don't feel I'm making any form of sacrifice, I'm simply doing what I want to do and happy to do that, as Singlespeedstu said. If you feel that I should be down the local bar, I guess you would think I'm making a sacrifice.

OK, I am fully aware that posting dictionary definitions of a word makes you a knob, and I apologise in advance but it's obviously needed if this thread's going to make any sense at all. So here it is.

"sac·ri·fice (skr-fs)
n.
1.
a. The act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially the ritual slaughter of an animal or a person.
b. A victim offered in this way.
2.
[b]a. Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.[/b]
b. Something so forfeited.
3.
a. Relinquishment of something at less than its presumed value.
b. Something so relinquished.
c. A loss so sustained.
4. Baseball A sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly.
v. sac·ri·ficed, sac·ri·fic·ing, sac·ri·fic·es
v.tr.
1. To offer as a sacrifice to a deity.
[b]2. To forfeit (one thing) for another thing considered to be of greater value.[/b]
3. To sell or give away at a loss.
v.intr.
1. To make or offer a sacrifice.
2. Baseball To make a sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly."

Northwind wins, yay!!! My hero.

So I have to give up something which I value to do something of a higher value? And if I don't value the thing I'm supposed to be giving up. I do understand the definition of sacrifice, thanks.

If I'm working because I want to and don't want to go to the pub, there is NO sacrifice. 🙄

Of course. But if you want to go to the pub and you don't, then there is.

The thing is though at least as far as I was concerned.
I wasn't missing out on anything by not doing normal run of the mill stuff because i got to ride world championship events without it costing me anything.

What might have been highly valued to you wasn't to me. So I felt no loss or sacrifice. 8)

Don seems like he's missing out though working at this time on a saturday night. 😉

Though he might be "working" as a porn star for all we know and in that case it's everyone else that's losing out. 😆

I got a sneaky edit in there too. 😉 just like you!!! 😆

Of course. But if you want to go to the pub and you don't, then there is.

But it's about choice and being happy with your choice and if you are making sacrifices then I guess you regret your choice.
If I want to go to the pub, I go and work will wait.
If my job doesn't allow me to go to the pub, I'll change my job if going to the pub is more important.

I just find it difficult to see where the multimillionairmodelhumping Cristiano Ronaldo has made sacrifices!!

And Singlespeedstu, as you say you made no sacrifice also. But if you'd been giving up things you wanted to do, then you would have. And then as you say your priorities changed and you'd have had to sacrifice something- so you sacrificed racing.

Anyway I'm off to bed now as I have to get up for work at 5am where I'll probably freeze my cods off for 4-5 hours.

Let me know if I miss anything while I'm sound asleep.

If I'm working because I want to and don't want to go to the pub, there is NO sacrifice

As jobs go, mine is quite enjoyable but they wouldn't see me for dust if I didn't need to go (granted, the family wouldn't actually starve if I stopped but life would be very different).

My wife would stay at work though, so don s isn't the only weirdo

I gave up racing when i lost interest in it.

No sacrifice there either.

Feel free to carry without me though as i've lost interest in this now. 😆

don simon - Member

"But it's about choice and being happy with your choice and if you are making sacrifices then I guess you regret your choice."

Nope. You don't have to regret the choice, you just have to wish you hadn't had to make it. You can make the right choice, know it's the right choice, and still know what you've given up.

My wife would stay at work though, so don s isn't the only weirdo

Thanks, I think. 😉

Oh OK then Singlespeedstu, I'd picked you up wrong, I thought your changing priorities were something that forced you to give it up, rather than you just not wanting to do it any more.

Looking back now, I reckon what I sacrificed in order to be very good at sport was having any friends. Didn't have the time to maintain the friends I had when I got seriously into training hard - unfortunately now I have a family and no longer have time to train hard (and have also slowed down and hence lost motivation) I still don't have any friends, and have no idea how to get any of the sort I once had.

Does that count as a real sacrifice (not that I was ever as good or dedicated as the people being referred to)?

Those sacrifices are made by the likes of John "The Brave" Terry. Poor things.

I think the sacrifice comes from the people who do the training and only just make it to the top of their sport.

A friend of mines brother is a top triathlete, he has a rediculous training schedule from what I understand (he's in [url= http://www.britishtriathlon.org/triathlonengland/news/article.php?id=7076 ]this list as one of the national starters[/url]) and is currently at Loughborough uni, he must be in his third year now.

I haven't seen or spoken to him for a year or so, so things may have changed. But he was there doing his degree work whilst training 7+ times a week. He rarely goes out to socialise, the one time he did choose to attend a social function (May have been a booze up but he doesn't drink, at least he didn't) rather than one of his many races (I think it was a national race) he got heavily chastised by his coach and his parents. He has basically lost a huge part of his life to concentrate on his chosen sport.

It doesn't pay well (He does get a lot of kit for free, but it's not the same as recienving a wage you can choose to spend how you wish). So he is supported very happily by his parents, I am sure he would get a part time job if he had the time.

Despite all of his training and the dedication he has put into this sport since well before I knew him, he is unfortunately always just outside the top 3 in the country. What this means is he doesn't get enough funding to really make it his lifes work, ie replace a job, but he quite rightly feels that if he just keeps at it he'll get there in the end.

If he does and becomes a pro athlete I am sure he will be seen right. But in the meantime he is plugging away self funded, self motivated - giving up other opportunities, not living a normal lfe at uni and in the end it may (I do hope not) all be for nothing.

He doesn't see it as a sacrifice, he is motivated and knows what he wants.

I see all the things he is not giving himself the opportunity to do and I call that a sacrifice.

I think my point is that the individual will never see anything they does as a sacrifice merely a choice, it is those who follow and assess their achievements who consider the choices they have made as sacrifices.

To use a painfully obvious and seasonally appropriate example, Christ had a choice, he could have just left everyone to it and been a happy carpenter. But, he made a choice - which was also a sacrifice.

is that from the Fast Show??

Nobody put a gun to his head to make him get up at 4am, so it's his choice and therefore something he would prefer to do other things as the rewards of success are worth the effort. Where's the sacrifice? I think some folks are putting their values onto others and come up with sacrifice...

A genuinley interesting debate

But can we agree that if you only stick to your training schedule because some one threatens to shoot you then that definaitly isn't sacrifice as you didn't have a choice

I think we all agree that whatever sacrifice is it envolves choice. on the part of the person making the choice

Another colleague avoided a life time of dialysis by there mum giving up a kidney. Sacrifice? Or just doing what you want to be happy? I mean it not like anyone forced them....

You're clearly all missing the reality.

Do you think top athletes get that good by boring training and diet and not going down the pub?

[img] [/img]

That's Chris Hoy on the right, David Beresford in the middle and the bloke lying on the stone is Floyd Landis.

As others have alluded to: It all comes down to your values and priorities. Take someone like Tom Daley: Going by what the media would term "a normal life", he is sacrificing alot, but I would doubt he would see it that way. He would look at the highs that it brings him and be glad of the choices he/his parents have made.

However, I would guess that at times where he is feeling low (which I would imagine comes with all the hard training), then he may see it as a bit of a sacrifice, due to the fact that he doesn't live in a bubble, and must be aware of this "normal life" thing that people go on about.

i've set myself the target of running the sheffield half marathon in 1hr:30min next year.

i know i can do it, but the training won't be pleasant. it'll mean doing fewer things i enjoy*, and more things i don't enjoy**.

(*riding after work, eating pies, having a lie in on a sunday if i want to)

(**running home from work - sometimes in the dark/cold/rain)

the word 'compromise' doesn't really fit...

You can make the right choice, know it's the right choice, and still know what you've given up.

Sums it it well IMO.

Another colleague avoided a life time of dialysis by there mum giving up a kidney. Sacrifice? Or just doing what you want to be happy? I mean it not like anyone forced them....

That shouldn't be a sacrifice as it is, I imagine, something you want to do. Donating your heart on the other hand!! Or more seriously, undergoing a life threatening procedure to help another would hint at sacrifice, or a procedure which leaves you less than 100% complete.

So, it would seem that the athlete doesn't perceive that they are making sacrifices, just choosing another way of life. And, from my point of view, if you feel you have made sacrifices, you should either change your point of view or change your life. Adios 😉