It’s so refreshing to see some recognition that athletes, like other public figures, are whole people!

It's interesting that the vast majority of media formulated criticism is directed at those who don't have an equal voice - the athlete, the coach, or the referee. Why don't journalists criticise each other? It's certainly not as though commentators don’t make multiple egregious calls during the course of a game/performance - many belying ignorance and an unprofessional level of preparation. Perhaps they don't wish to hurt their colleagues, or perhaps they don't wish to open themselves up for genuine assessment. Far easier just to make inane and uninformed comments about people who generally don't have the capacity to adequately defend themselves.

Well said. As workers in any other field, we would not put up with the public scrutiny of our personal or professional careers. Professional and semi- professional athletes have make enormous sacrifices to get to the top. When we review their performances on and off the field we need to remember that they are real people with real feelings. They should be treated with respect.

Some years ago now I watched my son playing footy on a Sunday morning. He was 7 years old. On the opposing side was a coach shouting some of the most disgusting directions to his charges.
So too were the parents from both sides. If our athletes are to develop an emotionally robust capacity, it needs to begin with how they are introduced to sport and how we adults inculcate in them what it means to truly compete for fun and for competition. Think of how many very talented athletes give up before they even start because so many failed athletes are charged with teaching them what sport is about? Its time to stop the cycle of spoil sporting.

It's easy to say if athletes (whether they're 7 or 27) can't handle the heat they should get out of the kitchen - but realistically there's often something keeping them there - such as a fundamental love of the sport, or even perhaps a perceived inability to earn a living doing anything else but the sport.

So why are athletes not taught to appreciate their own sense of achievement, and measure their own success or failure, and why are they not taught to manage their feelings about the public's opinions about them, and the politics behind their selection or non-selection? Perhaps the point about the small child and his team mates being asked (or ordered) to live out the failed dreams of the parents or coach is an obvious place to start.
Most people know of someone who is following "their dreams" which are really only the thinly disguised dreams of their parents. How can that help the athlete develop a sense of their own worth that can withstand the ego bashing they'll receive from armchair experts? It's certainly not the only cause for a fading sense of self-worth, or for wondering why you're putting yourself through the pain of training and sacrifice, but it is a valid starting point.

Well said BKW. When we look at some of our most elite athletes (and their off-field foibles) you can't help but wonder if they had passive aggressive parents.

Look at professional tennis and it’s full of side-line parents who appear to use a sinister emotional terror to get their 'kids' to perform on cue.

The same kind of phenomena happens with child models. Yes sport is naturally competitive but we need to critically examine when ‘competition’ (in all its strategic manifestations) becomes the primary imperative for all participation.

Social and cultural values in early sport and athletics are not aligned with the fact that only a small percentage of young athletes will make it into the big league. At the end of the day it’s bad for sport and even worse for our children.

So for me, this article by Bronwyn Magdulski is arguing about issues of sporting capabilities at the wrong end of the sport and athletic spectrum. We shoud be focusing on what to do when our young ones begin to walk,run, throw and love sport.

I definitely agree that there are several areas that can be improved - by looking at the needs of the athlete, whether it be a child or an elite athlete. Doing something as simple as asking the kid whether he or she enjoys the sport and then asking why - what makes it fun or not fun - and LISTENING to the answer. Maybe it's the skills involved, maybe it's the people.

But - the article is just a voice sticking up for all the athletes that have to deal with media, public commentators, fans and just people generally, who think they know the whole story, and are across all the reasons why the athlete is winning or losing.

A football player might feel he had a great game, but he scored no tries so he has to listen to the average punter asking "what happened mate, why are you playing so badly?". Put yourself in his shoes - what answer do you give? How do you feel? What's harder - contemplating your own performance yourself, or answering questions from people who have a limited knowledge of the game? Keep in mind every answer you give will be commented on, possibly misquoted and reported out of context, and you'll never hear the end of it if you say what you really think.

The article is acknowledging that even professional athletes are human, and have feelings and experience self-doubt, and so it's saying hey punters and media, be careful with the power you have over the feelings - and thus performance of the athletes. Realise you don't know the full story, you're being told only a part of it, and realise that NO - elite athletes aren't generally trained to cope with something that can be very demoralising.