Who is an athlete?

“If you have a body, you are an athlete.” A quote from the legendary track and field coach, and co-founder of Nike, Bill Bowerman. Pretty simple right? No gatekeeping, no restrictions, no weird rules or requirements. Anybody can be an athlete.

Contrast that with the definition of an athlete from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina” Suddenly there are requirements or goalposts to achieve before you can be considered an athlete. You have to be skilled enough.

I think I prefer Bill Bowerman’s theory. In my mind, as soon as you start to move your body with intention, you are an athlete. It doesn’t matter if the intent is to run a marathon, play a sport, or simply to improve your physical health. From day 1 you are an athlete. In the world where we’re all constantly exposed to the top 1% of athletes all over social media, starting from square 0 can feel hopeless. How can we ever be as good as they are?

But that’s a false measure to look at. If you’re brand new to a sport and starting comparing yourself to the best in the world, of course you’ll feel overwhelmed. You’re not meant to be comparing yourself to others in that way. You are your own baseline. Today is day 1, tomorrow is day 2, a month from now will be day 31. How much progress can you make in that time? What about in 2 months, 3? How about in 1 year? You could be sitting here 365 days from now looking back at your skill level on day 1 and realizing what used to be your baseline is so far beneath where you are now. You’ve been stacking bricks for 365 days and have set a new baseline, let’s see what 365 more bricks can do. Worry about you’re own progress, you can only control your own efforts. What other people are doing is irrelevant.

So, how do you become an athlete? Just start moving your body with intent. Get fast, get strong, get big, or get small. Play a sport. Whatever you want, just move your body.

If you have a body, you are an athlete. Don’t let anyone take that from you. Everyone starts from Day 0, to get to day 1 all you have to do is start. Once you get started just keep stacking those bricks.

-Devin