Why Do We Watch: The Psychology of Sports Fans

There appears to be an intersection between hockey and figure skating. It is interesting that there are benefits to this cross training, even though there is a lot of stigma around males that figure skate.

An interesting article about the progression of women in sports, specifically at the Boston Marathon. Not only was Roberta Gibb the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, but she did it in 3 hours and 21 minutes, which is faster than two- thirds of the male runners that day.

As the theme this week is the future of sports, I found this article interesting. We’ve talked about how hosting the Olympics often costs a country, it seems that hosts in the future may only be interested in making a political statement, which could affect the future of the Olympics, especially if more and more countries are hesitant to pay the price of hosting.

My little brother was a huge Sammy Sosa fan when he played for the cubs and the doping scandal was devastating to him. This shows the negative affects on steriods for the players fans, especially young fans. Also, Sammy Sosa thought he would still make it into the hall of fame in 2013, which he did not, yet another consequence of his choice to use drugs.

We have discussed players committing sexual assault, but never coaches committing it to their players. This might be something that is more experienced in women’s sports with a male coach in a power position, but is also interesting that he was not proven guilty in this case.

The article states that there are over 2,000 tweaks that can be made to a steroid molecule that can mimic the way testosterone works in the body, triggering protein synthesis and building more muscle tissue. I didn’t realize how steroids work or how effective they really can be.

“Here's the problem: The administrators who passed the rule either did not consider or did not grasp the unintended consequences of their action.”

Heard this story on the radio the other day... can’t even imagine the frustration this guy must be feeling.