UKH

I finished reading Beth Rodden's book last night. It's certainly a worthwhile read and reflects on what it takes to achieve the highest level of performance but also at why she felt compelled in the first place to make the sacrifices to get there.

It was at times difficult to read the pain that she went through during her 20s, whilst being also completely confused about why things were so difficult. I hope that we are better today at spotting the signs of trauma and in 20 years time there aren't similar autobiographies of athletes coming to terms with their suffering.

The book sits in the same genre as Katie Brown's Unraveled, both are interesting to read and offer different perspectives on the period.

Anyone else picked this up recently?

In reply to mpickering:

Yes, I have read both.  Totally agree about trauma and hope today’s young climbers are not suffering also.  

In reply to mpickering:

I haven't read the book yet, but have listen to her here. 

The Dirtbag Diaries | Beth Rodden: A Light Through The Cracks on Podbean, check it out! https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-i94bj-1ed93892

In reply to mpickering:

Choices not sacrifices

In reply to Rory Shaw:

Are you suggesting that the constant anxiety and nightmares were a choice that Beth Rodden made in the years after the kidnapping?

I suppose comments like this are the reason that I made the post in the first place -- I wonder if you have any friends or contemporaries who are suffering in a similar way but are unable to access the help they need due to the environment around them.

Elite level performance can certainly be a choice which people can make but for others the motivations are more complicated.

In reply to mpickering:

Not what I was suggesting at all

I get riled when sacrifice is used to describe choices that people have made to enable personal enhancement of some form which only benefits themself. It's often used in the context of elite sport.

Sacrifice to me is taking a personal hit to benefit others or the greater good (although I admit that there is often some form of personal gain in this process).

I'm not attempting to downplay the effect of what happened to Beth.

In reply to Rory Shaw:

Your original post didn't make that point very clearly at all. And it's quite a strange point to me. There's certainly a significant difference between experiences that flow from someone's own choices versus ones that are forced on them by circumstances. Or between doing things for your own benefit versus the benefit of others. Those differences are worth considering and discussing.

But "getting riled" about the word sacrifice being used for self-benefiting things is just silly because you've added an extra connotation to the word that commonly isn't part of the definition. Elite athletes absolutely make sacrifices to achieve what they do. That statement doesn't imply any moral judgement about the value of those sacrifices. Looking around online, one or two dictionaries include the "for the benefit of someone else" connotation that you expect, but most just define it as "for some other benefit". Using the word in the context of self-benefit is perfectly valid.