new thread
He lost his olympic title. Shouldn't have got shorn (get it?).
Yep, see my thread below on this subject.
That's exactly what I was thinking. He's no longer the best snowboarder or the best hair in the Winter Olympics. Never mess with your assets.
Quite a few comments on the local newspaper's web site here make references to Samson and similar situations, in effect saying he lost his power when he cut his hair.
Shawn did not compete in the downslope event for fear he'd hurt himself. It was won by a longhair, who said that real men take on the slopes they are given rather than complaining about them. Then a guy with hair a lot longer than Shawn's has now, along with two others, beat Shawn at the half pipe.
We here know that long hair affects a man's sense of personal power, but does that translate into athletic performance? It's a tale as old as the Samson tale in the Bible, but is there some truth in it? Is a subconscious psychological power at work? Or could it be that when a man practices repeatedly with long hair, he learns to pick up wind speed and direction and "which way is up" information from the movement of his hair, and without that information, Shawn was to some extent flying blind? Or maybe, his loss of his hair had nothing to do with it at all.
Well, my beard tells me all the time which way the wind is blowing.
Interesting to ponder....
Bill
Or could it be that when a man practices repeatedly with long hair, he learns to pick up wind speed and direction and "which way is up" information from the movement of his hair, and without that information, Shawn was to some extent flying blind?
--------------------
Very valid point, Bill. I do think that his perception of which way was up was affected by lack of hair.
Scott
Lets get real here. White is getting older, age is catching up
with him, the injuries are catching up with him. He is competing in a sport for the young he ain't young anymore.
Also all the injuries are probably making him more cautious.
Years ago he probably felt invincable, but that invincability
is now gone. Reality has come home in the form of injuries.
Hair probably had nothing to do with it.
He is facing younger competitors who are good, are hungrier,
and aren't afraid of injuries.
There is no reason that his hair would have anything to do with it. I still have long hair and that doesn't stop me getting hurt by things.
One thing I would add is White is competing in a sport where it
helps greatly to haves no fear. That is a great asset to have
when you're 17 - 20 years old, now that he is older and has sustained a few injuries he has now acquired fear. Chalk it up to being 17 and thinking your invincable.
Hair still had nothing to do with it.
Perhaps one didn't cause the other, but cutting his hair and losing the match were both indicators of Shaun's loss of confidence in himself.
Now I have to disagree. He still has just as much confidence in
himself, the problem is he is older now realizes he is not
infinceable. He can and will get injured. When he was younger
he, like all youth who are 17 or 18, felt they could do
anything and would nevef get injured. Well many years later he
is learning that he can and willg get injuries.
Been there, done that.
Bode Miller at age 36 was putting down the best times in the practice runs on the downhill skiing. For whatever reason, he couldn’t bring that performance to when it really counted. His age had little or nothing to do with it.
At age 27, Shaun White gave appearances of still having it together to be on top as evidenced by his winning, and best overall, score in the preliminary round. Something was just different this year. If his body was still capable of it doing it as proven in the preliminary round, then that leaves his mind. A person grows more than just their hair in becoming a longhair. I feel he severed more than just his hair when he decided to go fully corporate.
... the sweeter the music, as long as it's properly maintained.
--Val
But the bottom line is as athletes get older injuries take their toll. Just ask any football player who is out for the year
with a torn ACL or MCL. You could be a top athlete and it only stakes a split second to end your career. Just ask Daryl Stingley. (oh wait you can't........he died a few years back.)
In every sport injuries play a critical part. And yes Shaun White is no exception. JUst ask Lindsey Vohnn.
There is only so much abuse the human body can take before the athlete starts to consider that there is no amount of compensation that mitigates the wear and tear on the body.
Ask the many athletes who have destroyed knees at the end of their career, concussions, broken bones, torn acls, torn mcls, etc.
When you look at someone like Brett Farve who can't remember
any of the soccer games his daughter played or Junior Seau who
killed himself after experiencing the destructive effects
of concussions you start to understand what someone like Shaun White is going through.
At 27 can Shaun White still compete? Time will tell whether he
is able to compete athletes much younger than him.
(I would add that the conditions at the olympics are terrible.
Temperatures are in the 50s, the snow is in bad shape,
and that probably adds to concerns about injuries.)
Older may be better for violins but not athletes. Look at gymnastics where the girls are 16 and are finished when they get older.
It's because a tree is dead.
Violins are not living things, therefore the metaphor is wrong.
Also, if you can find the footrace between Johnny Knoxville and Travis Pastrana then go watch it. I wasn't able to find the video, but that's a somewhat decent exhibit of what extreme sports can do to your body. It's a better comparison than the violin thing, anyway.
An even better example would be a football game any given week
during the season. It only takes a split second for
a football player to have his season end with a torn ACL and MCL.
Or there is Darly Stingley who sustained any injury that put him
in wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Every sport has injuries and ultimately skiing/snowboarding/etc.
can result in serious injuries.
A violin you can carefully remove it from it's case,
carefully play it, carefully put it back in it's case
and carefully return it to safe keeping.
In skiing/snowboarding/etc. you're coming moving at high
rates of speed, and between falls/crashing into trees/etc.
you can sustain serious injuries. You can be very careful
with a violin, you can't always be careful skiing/snowboarding
etc. (Especially in the heat of competition when you're
main ob ject is to win and you're not careful to avoid injuries.)
if you're a football player and huring badly you're still going
to play in the Super Bowl since you may never make it to the big game again in your career.
The same goes for the olympics. You're going to be determined to win and you're going to not be concerned about injuries
since you may never make it back to the olympics.
Ultimately a violin can be replaced. It may not be replaced with
a 300 year old violin but it can be replaced. That is now true with the human body. They can replace knees, but it takes upwards of years to recover from a injureis like torn ACLs or MCLs. And ultimately every time you set foot on the fiels you'll
be aware that you could have another devastating injury. And it is that caution/awareness/etc. that may lead to you being cut from the team and being replaced by a hungry rookie who has no fear of injury.
That's a great analogy. Achieving fitness and sports goals as we get older is very satisfying. It proves the vast potential of our bodies and that many allow them to just rust out or use a variety of excuses why they're no longer able to be active.
As we get older we hopefully get wiser and, as you allude to, proper care is important to avoid injuries. I get injured far less now than I used to when I was younger. I'd also kick the butt of my 25 or 30 year old self!
A post scr ipt to this now that the olympics are over, I would point out that the condtions were terrible. During the day the temperatures got into the 50s, producing terrible snow conditions.
Here it was below freezing most of the time but in Sochi it was
in the 50s during the day. Less than ideal conditions for
a winter olympics.
Russia is a cold country but Sochi is an exception. Canada is a cold country but Vancouver is an exception. Both towns have palm trees. So what do they do? They put two consecutive winter Olympics in towns with palm trees. Some idiots probably thought "Canada and Russia have lots of snow, so they should be perfect!" Duh.
Bill
