The history of sports around Latin America in general, and Costa Rica in particular, is a rich one. There is just no doubting the central role that things like football, soccer, athletics, and baseball play in this part of the world. Sports enable countries like Costa Rica to shine on a global stage and also give people something fun to get involved with in their spare time.
While this can be in the form of playing sports for fun, many people around central/Latin America also like to follow their favorite side or league at the weekend. To make this even more interesting, people in countries like Costa Rica also like to bet on games too. American football is a great example of this and comes with plenty of matches to wager on each season. If you like to do this, using NFL expert picks to help decide which bets to make is worth considering.
Sports are also so popular on a global scale due to the famous pro athletes who compete in them. In the past, this included popular figures like Roberto Clemente, Muhammed Ali, and Jackie Robinson. While there are plenty of big-name pro players in modern sports, many wonder if they are actually as admired as their predecessors.
Modern athletes still get lots of attention
When you look at the state of modern sports, both around Costa Rica and worldwide, it is clear that modern sportspeople get arguably more attention now than ever before. For example, their every move is discussed by people on social media and smartphone footage of them is regularly posted too.
The top modern sportspeople also seem to be ever-present in the media nowadays. This is not only in terms of them appearing on TV shows or giving press interviews personally but also in terms of how often they are discussed in the media. You only have to look at the coverage that Brisa Hennessey’s World Tour win in surfing got for proof of this.
A key change over the years has been that coverage of modern pro athletes is now not only focused on their sporting exploits. Famous sportspeople in the modern age stand as much chance of gaining attention for a drunken night out, as they do for performing well.
Are modern athletes as admired as they were in the past?
As noted above, you have to say that modern athletes get more attention than they did in days gone by. Soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, has over 90 million Twitter followers who hang on his every word! This far-ranging influence is just not something that athletes from the past can compete with.
But does more attention mean more admiration? Does the higher profile of athletes now mean that they are as admired as they were in the past? In some ways, you could argue that this is not actually the case. The great access we now have to the personal lives of sports stars means we now see their weaknesses or bad behavior more than before. This could lead to us actually admiring them less than in the past and not looking up to them as much.
Athletes are still looked up to by many
Despite this, it is also true to say that athletes are still admired by society in general and remain heroic figures for many. Much of this comes down to an acknowledgment of their hard work, training, and discipline that the public knows is needed to make it as a pro athlete.
Sportspeople also have specific skills that most people cannot match, which also helps us to admire them. All of this has not changed throughout history and means that the admiration for sportspeople is still as strong as before. They are also in much better physical condition than the average person, which is something that most of us still admire.
Of course, modern athletes remain people that we look up to because of their extraordinary feats. The results they pull off make fans happy and this love is then passed back to the athletes in turn. The response to the Cost Rica men’s national soccer side recently qualifying for the 2022 World Cup is a good example of this. You can bet that the public in Costa Rica has a lot of love for them and hold them in as high a regard as the team who made it to the 1990 World Cup.
Do we still admire athletes as much as before?
This is a complex question to answer for sure and the truth may lie somewhere in the middle. While the talent, fitness, and exploits of modern athletes gain them just as much admiration as before, the access we have to their lives now might take some of this away.
