Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with athlete

One reason why the long-distance runner is lonely.

mykescipark — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:38:09 -0800

Good, athlete-friendly pedicure recommendations in L.A.? (Preferably the west side.) I'm an avid runner and cyclist, and my feet get destroyed from the constant activity on a regular basis. (Yes, I have high-end and appropriate athletic footwear; this is just the nature of my feet.) For the last few years, I've tried to treat myself to occasional pedicures to keep Hobbit-foot at bay, but I really need to step up the treatment (so to speak). Prior to now, I've been in Boston, where I had a much-beloved homebase for such things, but thus far I'm adrift in L.A.

Recommendations abound on Yelp, but their prime recommendation left me even worse split heels and sores than when I started. Plus, I tend to think the majority of reviews focus on the "nice nails and polish jobs" aspect of the pedi, and not so much the "kindly grind down my inch-thick callouses and split heels" side, which is what I really need.

So, fellow athletes (and those who tend to them). Any preferences for expert foot love in L.A. that will rejuvenate my exercise partners down south?

Where are the pages of statistics for smartletes?

eisenkr — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:09:15 -0800

There are lots of pages that display portraits of professional and amateur athletes next to their statistics. Where can I find portraits and statistics/rankings of the people who compete in more intellectual/less physical competitions? I'd love to see what the best (and not so great) chess, scrabble, and crosswords players look like.

Scientologist Athlete

josher71 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:28:30 -0800

Who are some famous athletes who are Scientologists? There are plenty of actors who I hear about being Scientologists but rarely an athlete.

Go home or come out?

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 11:42:55 -0800

Gay athlete needs life advice--should I keep training at the elite level or move on and get a "real life"? I'm at a crossroads. I'm an American but have been studying abroad and finally finish school this summer. I can either go back to the US and devote another two years to my sport and try to make the Olympic team, or "grow up", stay abroad and enter the working world. It seems like it should be an obvious choice to keep training, but there's a lot to consider and I'd love some advice.

I'm gay and have finally started to come out to my current teammates after our competition season ended. Most have been really supportive. One doesn't really 'get' it having known me so long acting straight, and there are others who now know I'm gay, but we haven't talked about it so it's slightly awkward--I want to tell them in a private moment but haven't had the chance and don't want to make a big deal of it.

On the teams I've been on, I've never wanted being gay to be the first thing people know about me. I want to be judged on my work ethic and ability, and just be one of the guys. We had a guy on the team this year who was out but didn't make it through the season (because of injury), and he was treated differently--not badly, but differently--and I didn't want that.

I've been doing my sport for a long time, and have competed at a high, international level. If I go back to the US and move to the national team training center, I'll have a chance at making the Olympic team. But I don't know if it will be a great chance. I've been able to do well in the past because I have a good aerobic capacity and work ethic, but I've always been much shorter than everyone else, and this makes me struggle with some aspects of the sport. For the past two years I've felt like I've plateaued; I've been trying extremely hard to improve and haven't gotten much better.

If I go back to the States and train with the squad, I'd like to continue gradually coming out to people, start bringing boys to social events, that sort of thing. The athletes, many of whom I already know, I don't think would care at all. But the coach might be another story. He's probably professional enough to not let it be an issue, but I can't be sure (he has been known to bring up peoples' personal lives during training sessions to rile them up), and I don't know of any guys who have been out during his tenure. And that might be enough to keep me in the closet.

The dream has always been to keep training and see how far I can get with it. But now I really like my life abroad and don't want to leave my friends here. Assuming I can get a decent job and the visa issues work out, part of me really wants to stay, become a grown up and have more serious relationships with boys. But then I flip-flop--while I don't love my sport the way I used to, I do still feel something for it.

I anticipate some of the responses could be "go for it, you're only young once, you have the rest of your life to work, you don't want to regret it in the future..."--that's what people I'm not out to say. But right now I don't think I will regret it. I obviously don't want to sell myself short, and I have done well in the past, but I've been struggling for a while and don't know if I have what it takes. I'm finally admitting to myself that I've been doing the sport for so long not just because I love to compete--I also like being in close proximity with a lot of fit, good looking guys.

So what should I do, keep training or move on?

Help a former athlete deal with depression.

|n$eCur3 — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 21:05:30 -0800

As a former athlete, I am having trouble coping with both the loss of my sport, and in its absence, the associated lack of euphoria. What can I do to feel better without taking anti-depressants? For the record, as far as I can remember I have always had a case of mild to moderate depression. I have never taken prescription medication to treat it though. However, during different segments of my life, I have self-medicated in one way or another. I smoked pot habitually for about a year but quit because the lows were too low. I also tried drinking alcohol for about a year, but gained weight and felt like shit; ditched that too. Finally I started eating right and doing daily exercise. After about 6 months of training I felt amazing and started to get competitive with cycling. And for the past 3 years have been riding for about 2-3 hours per day (as a student with plenty of time).

When I was near my athletic peak, I was able to deal somewhat serendipitously with my ongoing case of depression. Incidentally, the highs that I obtained on daily 3 hour bike rides gave me enough of an endorphin cocktail to be somewhat productive in society. Outside of the sport, I felt that I had a lot of energy left over – enough to accomplish anything that I was willing to set my mind to. Now that I have actual responsibility for the first time in my life, I have had to let go of cycling, gradually. I feel dysphoric, depressed, unmotivated, easily distracted and tired most of the time. The 45 minutes in the gym does not cut it for me, no matter what sport I try. Cycling on the weekends helps to a point, but the endorphins wear off and its hard to accept not being able to go on rides that I could easily do as recently as 2 months ago.

I am interested if anyone here has experienced a similar transition. Specifically, what did you do to cope? What do you do to fill the void where [insert sport] had previously existed?

I am willing to take anti-depressants as a final measure, and in the end, accept that I might need to. But for now I would like to know if there are any natural ways to deal with depression. I exercise, eat well, and sleep enough. So, I'm looking for things along the lines of: vitamin B-12, green tea, Chinese medicine, meditation. What works for you?

Why do athletes chew gum?

mdeatherage — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 21:03:16 -0800

Why do athletes chew gum? [no more inside]

2004 Olympic Athletes

mcwetboy — Tue, 17 Aug 2004 10:26:46 -0800

I'd like to know the number of athletes from each country competing at the Olympics -- basically, the size of each country's delegation -- for a little project I'm working on. The Athens 2004 site and the news orgs' sites I've checked do not provide such information, from what I can tell.