The Slowest Generation and Cultural Impact on Competition

A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal entitled The Slowest Generation examined a trend of slower finishing times in endurance events, going on to suggest that this is a bad thing rooted in a cultural shift in the way that younger generations approach competition.   The author says "races are turning into parades," and that "performance related apathy" among younger generations is the culprit.  He even suggests this could be underlying why the US hasn't won an Olympic Marathon medal since 2004.

I think it is hard to make snapshot judgments about a racer (and thus a race in totality) by looking at time alone, and it's certainly not slow finishing times that worry me about an apathetic generation when it comes to sport.  If a finishing time is slow but it is the result of an individual giving it his or her all, than that is the most honorable thing that an athlete can do.  What does worry me is when people would rather be apathetic (even going as far as to shun the whole notion of competition during a race) because it is easier to do that than to give an earnest effort and risk/expose oneself to failure. If you make a joke out of something, you can't fail. I do agree with the author of the WSJ piece that there is an increase in this attitude toward races, it is more prevalent in younger generations, and it is a sad and worrisome cultural reflection...especially because I'm afraid it expands well beyond sport. I'm not sure how vast the issue is, and I certainly don't know what to do about it...but I agree it is real.

As for the relationship between "performance related apathy" and US Olympic Marathon medals, I think the author is way off the mark. I've been fortunate enough to spend time with elite endurance athletes in Olympic Development Programs, and 'apathy' or a lackluster attitude toward competition are polar opposites to what goes on in those environments.  A bunch of new-age hipsters drinking beer and purposefully going slow in a color run has *absolutely nothing* to do with what is going on in Colorado Springs, Eugene Oregon, Ann Arbor Michigan, etc., etc.