Fine lines

Are competitive, professional athletes healthy? You may think unequivocally yes, of course, an athlete must be at peak health in order to perform his or her best at sport. Probably most successful athletes would be considered healthy as defined by “the absence of illness or injury,” at least most of the time and during their competitions.  But what about if we consider a broader definition of optimal health, as in the fitness, activity level, nutrition, mental state, etc to best maintain a happy and long life?  The World Health Organization website declares that “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” By this definition not all athletes may be necessarily healthy, at least not in a well-rounded and balanced way, because by their very nature, competitive sports encourage extremes.

Advertisement

AK summer days, and training with the USST camp

Since last Tuesday, July 5th, I’ve been in Anchorage, Alaska. This city is where I attended high school, and where I returned during the summers between my college years. So it’s familiar, though different without my parents in AK anymore (they’ve relocated to Montana), and great to visit the places and people I know up here. But really, I’m in Alaska primarily to join the US Ski Team training camp – we’ve had a week of dry-land training in town, and tomorrow morning we’re flying up to the Eagle glacier for a week of on-snow training.