Ok, maybe the title is hyperbolic. However, I can’t help but notice how specialization has driven the “obsessive-compulsive”-type culture we have today.

For example, and of greatest pertinence to this blog – The Olympics.

In terms of sport, through the centuries, we’ve seen more and more sports appear, and become “professional,” based on specialization. Special techniques, special tools, special rules.

In the early Olympics, Ancient Greeks competed in games that mostly represented tasks that warriors had to be proficient in – discus (shield-throwing), javelin (spear-throwing), running, wrestling, jumping, etc.

The individual skills of basic human movements gradually became more and more abstracted. Suddenly, the sports that were performed by a single athlete (pentathlon) were their own events. Then, events that really consisted of training for those events became events, like weightlifting.

Today, athletes are so specialized that they can’t possibly cross athletic boundaries successfully. In fact, genetic predispositions would prohibit them from being effective at other events.  This idea has infected youth sports as well.  More kids are suffering from overuse injuries than ever before, because they’re playing the same sport year round.

Is it strange that in a land of specialization, we’re experiencing a lack of general fitness? The lens needs to shift a bit. I propose an Olympics where all athletes have to compete in other sports. Swimmers have to compete in gymnastics events. Basketball players have to compete in cycling. Badminton players have to compete in weightlifting. Wrestlers have to compete in discus, and javelin throwers have to compete in judo.