"The Price of Gold" - Is elite athletics a healthy endeavor?

Chivito550

This is one of the best athletics documentaries you are likely to see, and I highly recommend giving it a watch. It is based around the athletes of Sweden's Golden Generation, namely Carolina Kluft (Heptathlon Olympic Champion), Christian Ollsen (Triple Jump Olympic Champion), Suzanna Kallur (World Indoor Record Holder 60m Hurdles), Stefan Holm (Olympic High Jump Champion), Kajsa Bergvist (High Jump World Champion), along with many other elite athletes who are lesser known. It shows exactly the tremendous toll their training has done to their bodies, the types of injuries they have encountered.

It goes on to show that countless juniors in Sweden are suffering from injuries, in that push to make it to elite level.

Some of the top athletes believe that elite athletics is not healthy, but health is not the reason they do it.

On a side note, this documentary gives a good insight into some of the training that elite field eventers go through. It is an area that doesn't get looked at much on this forum, and I believe it to be eye-opening.

This documentary is from 2012, and the narration is in English, while the interviews are in Swedish, subtitled in English.

Hope you enjoy, and it would be good to get a debate going regarding the pros and cons of being an elite athlete, from a health and wellbeing point of view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XnQyI3Mgbc

KielyUnusual

I clicked on this in the JTG article out of curiosity, was hooked and ended up watching the whole hour video. Great documentary.

The hurdles coach was a little scary and I thought emphasised the need for a sensible coach with some long term perspective. To get to that level requires a certain amount of obsessiveness and the need for a calming influence becomes all the greater. The fact that his training lead to great short term improvements but in the long term to a succession of injuries seemed lost to him. Compare that to someone like Brother O'Connell who seems to have a more long term, gradual improvement approach and enforces long periods of rest in his athletes in the off season.

Competitive sports at a high level are not healthy - once you cross that boundary from training for health to training for competition, especially at a high/elite level, you just have to accept that injuries are par for the course.

TFBubendorfer

Chivito550 wrote: »

Some of the top athletes believe that elite athletics is not healthy, but health is not the reason they do it.

I pretty much concur with that. And from what I've seen in Turin 3 weeks ago, that view got very much confirmed - both sides of it.

Grueller

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Competitive sports at a high level are not healthy - once you cross that boundary from training for health to training for competition, especially at a high/elite level, you just have to accept that injuries are par for the course.

Agree 100%. On a local level here I don't know any elite athletes from any sport other than gaa but I could show you two top inter county players fro the ninetys and noughties that already show serious signs of wear and tear. One has had a hip replacement well before fortyand tge other needs one knee urgently and the other soon after.

Grueller

Grueller wrote: »

Agree 100%. On a local level here I don't know any elite athletes from any sport other than gaa but I could show you two top inter county players fro the ninetys and noughties that already show serious signs of wear and tear. One has had a hip replacement well before fortyand tge other needs one knee urgently and the other soon after.

And I'm sure if you asked them, they'd do it all over again and put their bodies through the same torture without even giving it a second thought! Different breed of mentality at that level that 'normal' people just don't understand.

rom

Deleted User wrote: »

And I'm sure if you asked them, they'd do it all over again and put their bodies through the same torture without even giving it a second thought! Different breed of mentality at that level that 'normal' people just don't understand.

If I remember I think you just outlined the final scene in the doc. Seen it a bit back.

Chivito550

The most alarming of all the bits from the documentary for me was the high jumper who had very low body fat, having to burn muscle to get his weight down, skipping meals or eating far less than would be required. It's amazing that he had the energy to jump higher doing that than being 1-2kg heavier but having a proper diet.

Some aspects though the likes of ourselves can relate to though. Kajsa Bergvist saying that what she doesn't miss is having to always make sure she is in excellent shape. That can be wearing mentally. I find that myself. Things like "am I drinking enough water today" etc. Even when you aren't training you are still thinking about your training.

rom

Chivito550 wrote: »

The most alarming of all the bits from the documentary for me was the high jumper who had very low body fat, having to burn muscle to get his weight down, skipping meals or eating far less than would be required. It's amazing that he had the energy to jump higher doing that than being 1-2kg heavier but having a proper diet.

Some aspects though the likes of ourselves can relate to though. Kajsa Bergvist saying that what she doesn't miss is having to always make sure she is in excellent shape. That can be wearing mentally. I find that myself. Things like "am I drinking enough water today" etc. Even when you aren't training you are still thinking about your training.

There is a app hydro coach that is great for ensuring you are getting the fluid in right but thinking about drinking enough is not as bad as what some of those guys get up to. I remeber talking to a boxer who knew that a litre of piss weighed more than a liter of water when trying to make weight for a fight.

Nermal

Some pretty alarming hang clean form going on there too!