What should be our motivation behind athletic activity?

It is generally assumed that people who participate in sport can be divided into
two categories: One consisting of those who engage in sports either motivated b
y the excitement involved in preferably successful competition; and in the case
of professionals, driven by the economic rewards following it, and one much more
numerous group consisting of the less serious exercisers for whom the ultimate
goal is not the attainment of high athletic abilities, their aim is merely to ma
intain a modicum of physical fitness for preserving bodily health or relieve str
ess.
There are sound reasons why one might say that both categories actually
fail to optimally reap the potential rewards of regular athletic training.
The people in the first group have a very serious approach, and in most
cases they consequently show a high degree of development of their athletic pote
ntial. However, a most important negative aspect regarding competitive athletics
on the definite upper level is that the motivation of the participants tends to
depend on competitive ability, hence all their activity will seem to have no re
ason if and when their measurable results do not meet the standards defined by l
evels only attainable for people in the physical prime of their lives. As a resu
lt of this rather short-sighted approach, a majority of competitive sportsmen an
d sportswomen cease to train regularly when the results begin to decline. Then t
hey lose their abilities and gradually are reduced to the average level of the u
ntrained. Seen in a broad perspective, all their efforts have ultimately been wa
sted. It may therefore be argued that any motivation rooted in the isolated aim
to participate in competitions on the highest level is bound to fade away over t
ime, soon to be replaced with absence of any motivation and a concomitant athlet
ic inactivity. One more fact to consider here is that the very extensive prepara
tion required for top-level competition more often than not involves 3 hours or
more with training every day. Everybody agrees that this is not permanently prac
ticable. Luckily, it is perfectly possible to maintain an athletic ability immea
surably higher than the untrained level with, as an example, about sixty to seve
nty minutes five times a week, and some more on Sundays, a total amount of activ
ity which falls in the region of 7-9 hours a week.
People belonging to the second group admittedly have a potentially perma
nent objective. However, this advantage is largely offset by the deplorable fact
that those who solely train for the maintenance of physical health very seldom
develop in themselves anything near high abilities. In reality, in most cases th
ey possess a limited athletic level on or near the average level of "normal," un
trained people. Typically those less serious keep-fit-exercisers train no more t
han three times a week, and in a great many cases, even less. Such a level of ac
tivity represents the recommendable starting level for people who have not train
ed before. Later on, a higher frequency and not least regularity is imperatively
necessary in order to develop the eminently capable body which ought to be the
obligatory companion to a similarly developed and capable mind. Unfortunately, t
he situation is that these exercisers tend to unnecessarily continue to limit th
eir training to the aforementioned level. This because of the widespread idea th
at all you need to be "in shape" is this modest activity. It is basically a ques
tion of values. When a given milieu or society does not value a particular abili
ty, those who want to develop and possess it are frequently accused of overdoing
, and also of selfishness, because devoting time to an "unworthy" activity is by
definition a revelation of selfishness. This approach has long ago been irrefut
ably contradicted by scientific evidence, in addition to the even more significa
nt living proof provided by large numbers of athletes who with themselves show a
ll humanity what you and I can really do, as long as we preserve the undying des
ire to eliminate and transcend our present limitations, and that the rewards fro
m breaking out of the adaptive limits of the untrained are truly immense.
What, then, is it all about? I would like to formulate it this way: Our obligati
on is all our lives to strive to encourage and assist the continuing physical, m
ental, and spiritual development of not only ourselves as individuals, but of th

e whole brotherhood of humanity.

Per Inge Oestmoen, Norway.