True-Sport-Report

Executive Summary
Sport touches the lives of most Americans, and it plays a critical role
in educating youth and shaping the national culture. More than 162
million people in this country have some relationship to sport, whether
they are active participants, parents of players, coaches, spectators, or
volunteers. Studies show that participating in sport provides a wealth of
benefits—physical, emotional, psychological, and social—and that it is a
uniting force in bringing people together. Sport participation can help build
character, encourage emotional growth, and teach players and spectators
the value of honesty, respect, teamwork, dedication, and commitment.
We play sport for different reasons—because it is fun, because the glory of
pitting our skills against those of well-matched opponents is exhilarating,
because we value our relationships with teammates or coaches, or because we
feel the personal accomplishment of pushing our physical and emotional
limits. Whatever the reason, true sport—that is, sport played hard, fair, and
clean—fosters personal growth and social goods. In sum, sport adds value
to our lives.
Beyond these intrinsic rewards of sport are the extrinsic rewards—winning,
fame, and notoriety. Certainly everyone who plays sport at any level aims to
win—that is the nature of competition. But we know from research presented
in this report and in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA’s) research
study, What Sport Means in America: A Study of Sport’s Role in Society (Sport
in America Report), that all too often the lure of the fame and notoriety
can distort and undermine the value of sport and lead to a desire to win at
any cost. There are many indicators that sport as currently pursued is not
always delivering on its promise:
• an unhealthy focus on early specialization;
• overtraining;
• teams and programs that cut less developed and less talented
children before they have a chance to grow into their bodies;
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