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How do you teach athletes who they are without their sport?
🇳🇱 Netherlands /Sports

How do you teach athletes who they are without their sport?

From NRC Handelsblad · () Dutch

Translated from Dutch, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Analysis Sources not specified Context piece
  • The article reflects on the profound loneliness and despair experienced by athletes when their identity is solely tied to their sport.
  • It questions how athletes can learn to value themselves beyond their performance, especially when success is elusive or leads to injury.
  • The piece suggests that true self-worth comes from being valued for who you are, not just for achievements, and highlights the importance of this lesson for athletes.

The crushing loneliness and despair an athlete can feel when their entire identity is bound to their sport is a profound issue explored in this reflection. The piece uses the hypothetical departure of an athlete, Sven Roes, as a starting point to question how individuals can find their sense of self when their sport has been their life.

It doesn't matter what you achieve. That is totally unimportant even. You are allowed to exist, just for who you are. As a brother, as a son, as a friend.

— Author reflecting on a core messageArticulating the fundamental idea that self-worth is independent of achievement.

The article posits that societal praise and personal motivation often center on athletic achievement, leading athletes to believe their worth is solely performance-based. This intense focus, coupled with the pursuit of dreams like Olympic medals or injury-free competition, can become a source of immense pressure. When these dreams falter or remain unfulfilled, athletes may feel diminished, believing they are "less and less valuable" as others surpass them.

But who you are without that sport, you don't learn that.

— AuthorHighlighting the challenge athletes face in developing an identity outside their sport.

It raises the critical question: How can athletes learn that they have inherent value as individuals, regardless of their achievements? The author reflects on the difficulty of this lesson, especially for those who have been conditioned from childhood to equate performance with appreciation. The narrative suggests that external validation, while seemingly positive, can obscure the development of a stable self-identity independent of sport.

If your sport is your life, and you stand still so often and for so long while everyone else moves on – very far on, in Dutch short track – then you yourself become less and less valuable. That is not true, of course, but that's how it feels for yourself.

— AuthorDescribing the internal struggle and diminished self-perception athletes can experience.

Fortunately, the article notes that Roes has returned, and through his experience, has realized that he is loved for who he is, not just for his athletic prowess. This realization underscores the central theme: the importance of recognizing one's intrinsic worth. The piece concludes by pondering how to teach athletes this vital lesson, emphasizing that their value as a person exists independently of their sporting success.

He now knows that everyone loves him for who he is. That he is also allowed to exist when he achieves nothing. That it doesn't even matter.

— AuthorReflecting on Sven Roes's realization about his self-worth.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by NRC Handelsblad in Dutch. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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