I read this strange article the other day about another Olympic hopeful. It spotlights Steven Lopez, who has previously won Olympic Gold in taekwondo.
The story goes as so: Lopez won Olympic Gold in 2000 and 2004. In 2008, he was upset and took the bronze. Now he's back trying for another gold.
What's strange about this whole situation is how Lopez has put his entire life and development on hold to do this. At age 33, he still lives with his parents, where his Mom cooks his meals and does his laundry.
How is this a healthy situation? In my view, he has essentially given up being an adult to try and win yet another gold medal. He's already won 2 gold medals, which gives him a different outcome than 99.99% of all athletes. Will another gold medal really make that much difference??
Maybe it's time to start thinking about other things like, oh I don't know, getting started on a career or starting a family.
In the article, it even says he may go for gold again at the next Olympics. So is that another 4 years of living with Mom and Dad?
I really wouldn't have any problem if he was living on his own and doing this. But somebody should be tellling him it's time to move out. And if that decreases his chances of another gold medal, then so be it. There are more important things in life.
“I really wouldn’t have any problem if he was living on his own and doing this. But somebody should be tellling him it’s time to move out. And if that decreases his chances of another gold medal, then so be it. There are more important things in life.”
Matt, seriously this is lame. If you want to pass judgement on the guy, OK. If you want to blog about the judgement, OK. But why should anybody be telling this guy what is more important in life?
It’s just my opinion. Anyone is free to disagree obviously.
Someone, aka his parents, should be telling him that being an independent adult is more important than improving his odds of another gold medal.
Again, my two cents.
Also interesting that the Olympic governing body makes huge amounts of money on the backs of these athletes, while most of the athletes get little or no money for their efforts.
I used to frown upon those who delayed adulthood, but then again I quickly realized they simple aren’t me. You, nor me are the ones that stipulate what is important to him. Clearly his parents haven’t kicked him out so they’re cool with the idea.
But on an additional note, for so many of these athletes, they really know little else beside their sport. When it’s become an integral part of your life, leaving to relatively comfortable (in the sense of familiarity) is hard.
As any parent knows, making things easy for the child is not always the best solution for long-term growth. Really, I fault the parents more – he is just free-riding on the situation.
I didn’t read the article, but since he is called Lopez and may have Latin American roots I assume it may be a cultural thing. I am from a Mediterranean country and here if one is single, living with parents it’s not considered that abnormal…the positive emphasis Americans put on “independence” and living “alone” it’s very different here. Living alone is not considerate a milestone to achieve in the same way that in the US.
Honestly, I thing that living alone, evolutionary and culturally speaking, it is an exception confined to the particular social context of XXth century America and Central European Western countries. Even in the US, at the beginning of the XX century single adult people would live with relatives. We are social animals used to live in communities. There are several studies that show correlation between living alone and depression:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120323001246.htm
Just my two cents from a different pont of view
I love your blog, by the way!
Glòria