At least one in every seven people found worldwide are an athlete at some level, according to the International Olympic Committee. These athletes are amateurs and professionals who play anything from basketball, tennis, ping pong, to even competitive dance. Yet, athletes are not the only ones affected by sports as a whole. There are parents, kids who idolize athletes, employees of athletic facilities and teams, and just sports fans overall who would consider sports to be a large part of their lives. These sports have a positive impact on more than just athletes’ lives.

I have had sports involved in my life forever. There’s a picture hanging in my living room of me at a college basketball game when I was just two months old! I was around sports, and then finally started playing them when I was in kindergarten. From then on I was obsessed with watching games, rewatching highlights on Sportscenter, following any of the latest sports news, and going outside and playing myself. When I was younger, I saw sports as not only present me, but also future me. I dreamed of going to college and playing on that big stage, and in a few months, I will be playing basketball on that level. So, using my prior knowledge which has developed through my years of watching and playing sports, and the sources I have looked through, sports definitely have an effect on a lot more than just athletes’ lives.

To focus on the life of an athlete, these lives are anything but easy. Every day they go through tough workouts, with only 1.5% of any athletes getting any sort of reward other than the betterment of themselves. Yet they continue to work, many just wanting to get into the public eye that is Division I athletics. Although any sporting event acquires fans, professional and college teams create the biggest fanbase, and in order to get into professional sports, most sports require playing at the collegiate level. These athletes put in time to become the best they can be. 

According to Poornima University, there are many advantages to being a student-athlete. These include: getting to represent your university, interacting with a variety of people, knowing how to handle failure, and having your teammates become your friends. Being able to represent your university can have many benefits, but there are also drawbacks. Being a player, you’ll have faculty, other students, and the university’s fanbase all cheering for you! But, when something goes wrong, the player will have these people upset, and could lose their time in the spotlight. This then goes into the interaction with a variety of people, which comes from competing against athletes all around the nation. These athletes come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures. This makes you more exposed overall. Although, interacting with others can always involve a negative conversation. “Smack talking,” a term that is often used to diminish or humiliate another person in a gloating or bragging sort of way, can come up on many occasions. Opponents will do it jokingly, but also in a very serious manner to get under the other players’ skin. When a player loses in these case scenarios, verbal comments can get worse. Yet, through all of the time these athletes have put in, they have learned to lose. They have learned to accept failure and use it to better themselves. These skills athletes have developed, then turn into everyday life skills. 

Sports overall are a billion dollar industry. When a major sporting event is brought to a town, local businesses and hotels thrive on the fans and tourists. In Illinois, the Chicago Cubs bring over 600 million dollars to the state annually. This statistic USA Today reported is shocking, and truly shows the impact major sporting events have. Restaurants, hotels, taxi companies, and many other industries thrive off of these events. These sporting events attract fans worldwide, and provide their attractions to reap the benefits.

Throughout these local locations, there are many employees which then have many financial benefits through sports. For example, when the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament goes to Des Moines, there are: concessions workers, custodians, ticket takers, parking attendants, and many other jobs that people can now partake in. These employment opportunities provide money to these people, and a good job opportunity is hard to find anymore. According to the Economic Modeling Specialists Intl., “As of 2013, the sports industry in America produced over 456,000 jobs.” Their jobs average out to a yearly salary of $39,000, which is $7,800 over the average annual salary in the U.S. Although not every job in the sports industry is making that amount, this shows another benefit to having a job within this industry. 

The sports industry “provides a platform for people to come together and support their country”(Depta). Focusing on the Olympics, there are 196 nations that have been represented. This includes staff, coaching, referees, or athletes. Within all these nations are a fan base, people who are watching in support of their country’s athletes. This brings together people nationwide, whether they’re aware or not. Following the 2014 World Cup, FIFA reported that there were over 200,000 tickets sold to U.S residents in support of the men’s national team. To add to that, there were 24.7 million Americans watching that game on television. That is just under 25 million people who came together to support a group of players many have never met, just because of the sport. To look back on the time in 1995 when the Cold War was going on, there was a lot of tension. South Africa had been a part of a legislation against any non-white person, called an Apartheid. Right in the middle of that war, South Africa took home the Rugby World Cup. This brought South Africans together, and helped the nation heal. Who knew sports, what many call “just a game,” could change the mental state of an entire nation.

Youth sports also keep children very active, which comes with a lot of benefits. This has become a hot topic as of lately, specifically due to the national obesity rates growing a ton, specifically within the last decade. “The national obesity rate has increased by 26 percent since 2008.”(Farberman) Keeping children active is definitely a start to solving this problem.  According to Ohio University, participation in youth and interscholastic sports is associated with improved weight control and improved academic achievement. The improvement of academic performance stems from the work ethic, and dedication skills which come from sports. Keeping children active leads to a healthier, more intellectually strong individual. 

Kids being involved in sports means kids being big sports fans. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is focused on helping sick kids make their dreams come true, and big-name athletes play a large part in that. If a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness has a dream to do something, or meet someone, why not honor that wish? Sports organizations worldwide help this happen, and the San Francisco Giants baseball team has been involved numerous times. A five-year-old leukemia patient had a dream of being Batkid. This child was granted his wish, and the child spent a day “fighting” off the bad guys. The Giants joined in by having Batkid save their mascot, and many players were there to celebrate (Depta). This story is one of many, and the effect that athletes have on young kids' mental health in a tough time is amazing. 

Sports organizations and athletes are amazing role models for the younger generation. Even older people can show great prestige towards them. Sports figures show a display of hard work, competitiveness, and are a great form of entertainment. JJ Watt, an NFL star, said in a radio interview on Sports Radio 610 that he has “always felt as though there’s people who look up to us (athletes), or look up to me, so I try to provide the best example possible.” Watt has done many things to emerge as a role model, including signing autographs, sending personalized letters to fans (Depta), and starting a relief fund for the town of Houston after a devastating hurricane. These actions are definitely not necessary, but are a great use of stardom. As Laura Depta of Bleacher Report states, “Ask young children who their role models are, and I bet a good amount of them would name an athlete.” 

Although, not only athletes are role models; an organization as a whole can also be looked up to. For example, my whole life I have adored the Atlanta Braves. I’ve traveled anywhere from Milwaukee, to Chicago, to even Atlanta just to watch them play. This organization, and its players' abilities, fascinate me so much, especially when I was younger. I could never choose just a singular player as my favorite because the entire Braves organization I saw as my favorite. This team plays a role in my life outside of just athletics, I look up to them as people. Not only for their ability in baseball, but their attitude, their personalities, and their off-the-field presence. 

Emotions are always on full display in the sports world. These emotions are found throughout anyone’s lives, but fully brought out through athletic events. A player misses the game-winning shot in the national championship game and cries, wishing he could do something to change it. That can be in full comparison to your boyfriend breaking up with you and you wish you could change it. Although that analogy is way different in context, it describes the same emotion felt. This emotion is felt through a TV screen after a game. In Jim Valvano’s words, from the 1993 ESPYs, “...you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day.” This reputable college coach who passed away from cancer had many bright ideas which stemmed from sports as a whole. He showed that emotions are not anything to hide, you need to embrace them, and that’s something everyone should live by.

The gender gap between sports is not anything to ignore; it has a negative impact on gender equality. Being equal no matter the gender is a big ideal that has been brought to attention a lot in the last year. Messner states that “we see children performing gender in ways that constitute themselves as two separate, opposed groups (boys vs. girls)” (16). He conducts a study on two youth soccer teams, one boy, one girl, and notices how the boys taunt the girls' femininity. He watches how the parents react to this, and sees how the parents don’t process the differences; how wrong it truly is. “Instead, they interpret them as the inevitable unfolding of natural, internal differences between the sexes,”(Messner, 16). It is shown here that these parents think this gap between genders is completely normal. Why has it come to this, where two people with different genders are automatically looked at differently from one another? Sports exploit this issue. The issue of paying a professional women’s soccer player an average of $40,000, compared to the men's soccer average of $60,000. (John Jay). This issue arises all across the board, in any sports that are differentiated from gender.

Being put in the spotlight can alter any person’s ego, and many resort to wanting to enhance that feeling. In the sports world, athletes resort to drugs. Drugs that focus on enhancing their performance, and make them better players overall. Some of these players can then become a bad influence to people who once idolized them. “Companies that sell supplements say that business has never been better.”(Johnson, 3). These performance-enhancing drugs, also known as steroids, have become a very hot topic within the last couple of decades. Addiction to these drugs is a serious and severe thing to get involved with. Once you get hooked, you can rarely go back, and by that time you’re losing your role on your sports team. Many of these drugs have terrible side effects after a while, also. "In today's world, athletes who are determined to cheat know that natural substances are the way to go."(Johnson, 3) These drugs have now become illegal, and drug testing happens often within all professional sports. Although, this still doesn’t stop it from happening.

Many athletes and sports phenoms are looked at, as most people are, in a stereotypical manner. The “dumb jock” ideal has been around society for a long time. “...Athletics and intellectualism are conflicting ideals. We assume good athletes are dumb. The image of the dumb jock is pervasive.”(Gerdy, 70). So, if someone constitutes themself as an athlete, now they’re dumb. Or so the stereotype is and believes. “So many brothers get sucked into what seems like a basketball cult because they’re conditioned to see themselves—and even aspire to be seen—as athletic mules rather than as thinking men.”(McCall, 1997, as cited in Gerdy, 68). This claim shows these people are being conditioned to look at their lives as an athlete, and not an academic. This plays a part in the “dumb jock” stereotype that is so apparent to life today.

Overall, there are many positive impacts sports have on people. These impacts don’t only affect the athletes, though, as there are so many people that are involved. So many people that look to sports for revenue, for entertainment, and for joy. Athletics as a whole play a large role in tons of peoples’ lives.

Works Cited

“Benefits and Impact of Youth & Interscholastic Sports.” Ohio University, 22 Jan. 2020, onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/benefits-and-impact-of-youth-interscholastic-sports/.

Center, Iowa Events. “Employment Opportunities.” Iowa Events Center,            www.iowaeventscenter.com/about/careers.

Depta, Laura. “12 Ways Sports Make a Positive Impact.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2347988-12-ways-sports-make-a-positiveimpact.

“Difference Between Men and Women in Professional Soccer .” John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 13 April 2017, jjay.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/contentgroups/sasp/poster_gallery/poster14.pdf

Gerdy, John R. Sports: The All-American Addiction. University Press of Mississippi, 2002. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/9929.

History.com Editors. “Apartheid.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 7 Oct. 2010, www.history.com/topics/africa/apartheid.

Johnson, Kirk. "Performance-Enhancing Substances Raise Serious Ethical Questions for Athletes." Drugs and Sports, edited by William Dudley, Greenhaven Press, 2001. At Issue. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010183204/OVIC?u=kcccedar&sid=OVIC&xid=4ac73fed. Accessed 7 May 2021. Originally published as "Performance Enhancing Drugs Proliferate, and So Do Ethical Questions," New York Times, 31 Aug. 1998.

Messner, Michael A. Out of Play: Critical Essays on Gender and Sport. Albany, SUNY Press, 2007, pp. 11-31, tinyurl.com/fz8axyzj

Nells, Kathryn. “The State of Obesity 2020: Better Policies for a Healthier America.” Tfah, www.tfah.org/report-details/state-of-obesity-2020/.