Athletes with Radical Lifestyles
By: Stephanie Banat
The word radical is defined as very different from the usual or traditional, extreme.
Four very different stories by Ragsdale, Keh, Giambalvo, and Merrill describe athletes who chose a very different or “exreme” way of life.
Ragsdale’s article details the experience of a newbie surfer who travels to South America alone for the first time and takes on one of the most dangerous, secluded hiking routes to the beach in the mid-day heat during South America’s hottest season of the year. The very bold surfer, whose name remains anonymous throughout the peice, was warned by local natives the night prior that he may not be able to handle this trail. However, he does it anyway. Due to a combination of being hungover and dehydrated from the night before and being in 93 degree weather with moist, humid air and not a trace of wind, the surfer suffers faints at the top of the crest before the beach, and nearly dies of a heat stroke.
Its only by a mircale that the two local natives he had conversed with in the bar the night before happened to find him unconscious and saved him just in time. The surfer knew about the dangerous consequences that could occur, given the time of day and the weather plus his physical state due to the night before, but he chose to ignore these signs and do it anyway. An extreme move with extreme repercussions.
The main character of the next story by Keh, Marieke Vervoort, lives a radical life as well. When she was 20, Vervoort developed an incurable, debilitating disease, which entailed multiple types of muscle dystrophy and caused her to be paralyzed. Despite this, however, she competes in the paralympics for wheelchair sprinting and wins the gold medal.
Vervoort becomes an international superstar, traveling the world, meeting royalty, making headlines in every newspaper. She was and is still an inspiration to paralyzed people everywhere. However, the pain of her disease became too much to bare and she obtains the legal right to euthanasia. But what was most radical about her was that she became a major advocate of the right to choose euthanasia. Her speeches about it flooded the media. “Some athletes promoted soft drinks, Vervoort promoted euthanasia”, the story read.
Another athlete who led a radical life, and also a cruel one, was ex NFL player Michael Vick, a main character in Giambalvo’s story. Michael Vick, who was once the highest paid NFL player was running a secret rink of dogfighting, an inhumane blood sport where pitbulls are pinned against eachother to attack one another for the purpose of others’ entertainment. Vick also even hung, electrocuted, and beat up dogs himself. Why would the highest paid player in the NFL commit a heinous crime like this against innocent animals and risk his reputation and career? He later reported that he only did it because he thought he would never get caught. Bold is an understatement for his attitude. Its most ironic and radical that a wildly successful sports player would facilitate a “bloodsport” like this one, instead of sticking to football.
Lastly, Merrill’s article tells the story of Shelly Pennefather, a former Villanova basketball superstar who decides to give up basketball and chooses to live as a cloistered nun at one of the strictest monasteries in the world, Poor Clares Monastery. As cloistered nuns do, she becomes cut off from society, not using a cell phone or car or even wearing shoes for 23 hours of the day. Many of her peers ask the question “Why would someone with so much to offer the world lock herself away and hide her talents?” Its ironic and radical indeed, but Pennefather loves her new life as Sister Rose Marie. She doesn’t feel lonely but feels fully fulfilled for the first time.
For better or for worse, each of the subjects in these articles are very bold. Some benefited from this boldness while others were negatively effected by it.
Multimedia elements such as photographs and video clips would have enhanced Ragdale’s story about the hiking surfer, by setting the scene and allowing the reader to visualize the dangerous hiking trail and the extreme height of the crest that the surfer was climbing up to. Keh’s article would also benefit from the addition videos of Vervoort competing in the paralympics, so that the reader can see how fast she is able to sprint, all while on a wheelchair: an exciting and exhilarating sight. While Giambalvo’s story focuses on the gruesome topic of dogfighting, a terrible act that people don’t want to watch, it may be helpful for the reader to see photographs of the “Bad News Kennel”, the space where Vick held his dog victims, in order to fully grasp how bad the conditions were. Merrill’s story definitely feels more “real” in a sense, when one actually gets a visual of Sister Rose Marie’s new lifestyle, photographs of the monestary and her seeing her family and friends through a glass.
