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by EA-3167 81 days ago
Is anyone worth listening to seriously suggesting that informal childhood sports are somehow equivalent to programs that can define academic or professional careers?

Edit I’d add that T screening in sports exists primarily to find dopers, not people trying to pass.
1 comments
lynndotpy 81 days ago
I don't see how your question follows from the rest of the discussion, or in what specific ways you are suggesting people argue to be equivalent. Both K-12 sports and Olympic sports are understood to be sports.

To restate myself, sports during childhood are much more important than elite world championships. Almost everyone I know did a sport with peers during our formative years, myself included. Meanwhile, nobody I know was ever close to qualifying to be an Olympic athlete, and I feel certain the same is true for most of the people in this thread.

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EA-3167 81 days ago
Well then good news, this article and the discussion are only talking about the Olympics, not childhood sports.
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crote 81 days ago
The problem is that decisions at the olympic level tend to trickle down to lower competitions. There are plenty of sports where the gap between "college kid having fun" and "Olympics" isn't very wide.
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EA-3167 80 days ago
Fortunately there's a big gap between "College kids" and "Kids", and by the time you're in college it's not just about having fun anymore. Sports in college, whether we like it or not, are a large source of upward mobility for a lot of people, sometimes whole families and communities. College sports can determine access to college through the system of scholarships, and of course they can lead directly to pro careers.

Generally speaking when people talk about "kids sports" they specifically mean pre-collegiate, not in the least because colloquialism aside, college students are adults.

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crote 75 days ago
> by the time you're in college it's not just about having fun anymore

As someone who played sports in college, for >99% of people it really was just about having fun: you're hanging out with your friends, getting some exercise, and doing something enjoyable. I exercised side-by-side with people who went on to represent my country on the international stage and their dedication was definitely the exception.

No silly scholarships involved here, though: I live in the EU, so education is reasonably affordable to everyone without it, and the colleges don't feel the need to pretend to be professional sports teams.

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