The role of an athlete in society

I recently stumbled across a very small booklet that was distributed to athletes and officials during the last edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival held in Paris last summer.

Written by Aivar Haller and published in Estonia, the booklet covers a number of important factors that impinge on an athlete's career as he or she rises to stardom.

Haller's objective is to make young athletes aware that the thrill of victory and the attainment of one's goal are not as important as the positive changes that shape the athlete's character on the road to success and glory.

In the first chapter of the publication, Haller tackles an ongoing dilemma in the sporting world. How can the state make better use of an athlete's influence on the development of society?

When an athlete hits big time, there seems to be a complete alienation from the symbiotic relationship that had worked so well in the early years of the athlete's career.

Top athletes tend to become primadonnas, living in luxurious homes, driving flashy cars and splashing out enormous sums of money on trivial items.

Apart from the amount of money they earn on the field of play, leading athletes make even more money through sponsorship agreements.

Critics often argue that such athletes hardly give any tangible returns to the society that nurtured and developed their talents.

When athletes hail from a small island or a relatively unknown country, their success helps to put that respective region on the sporting map.

Some Caribbean island states have become familiar names thanks to the success obtained by their athletes at the Olympic Games or some other high-profile events.

The cooperation between athlete and state tends to fizzle out during the glory years when the athlete reaches the pinnacle of his or her career.

The author argues that in most cases, successful athletes boast that they had achieved everything through their own personal effort. That may be partially true, but in saying so, athletes are turning their back on the society which has financed the infrastructure and provided professional mentors to train them in their early years.

Ideally, the state and the athletes should come together to maximise their popularity and promote a healthy lifestyle and a sense of national pride.

Successful athletes definitely owe something back to the community and they are in duty-bound to serve as appropriate role-models for youngsters around them.

Athletes are in the public eye and as such, anything which they do is bound to attract its fair share of media attention.

Sometimes, renowned athletes seem to ignore the fact that they mean much more to people than they can imagine.

Refusing to give an autograph to a youngster or avoiding a group of fans who had waited hours to catch a glimpse of their heroes, are usually the first symptoms of athletes turning their back on the same society that had supported them wholeheartedly years before.

Athletes can be opinion leaders and they should champion public communication campaigns which advocate healthy lifestyles. It would be a way of saying a small thank you to society for its support.

Water shortage

News has reached me that there is a problem with the water supply at the functional diagnostics laboratory at the National Pool complex.

Apparently, this problem has persisted for months because there is a fault in the system which still needs to be traced. This laboratory is the only sports clinic in Malta which regularly monitors the health and fitness of our elite athletes.

It was through such tests that the Malta Olympic Committee could project the number of potential medal winners at the last Games for the Small States of Europe.

This is yet another complaint to add to the list of problems that are being encountered by the management of the pool complex.

Apparently, officials from the Malta Olympic Committee have been chasing the problem for weeks on end but to no avail.

I have always argued that if managed properly, the pool complex could be run on a break-even basis and possibly register a small profit at the end of the financial year. But to achieve this, concrete measures have to be introduced.

In the meantime, scientists and doctors working at the clinic have to make do without a water supply.

How they are managing to beat the odds baffles me but it would be no surprise if one day, these people put their foot down and refuse to work in such appalling conditions.