Why is it that many people link elite achievement to personal worth? Those who have reached elite achievement, in academics, in sports, in careers tend to be put on a pedestal above the rest of us, as some sort of ethereal gods who have ascended mortality. This may have served its evolutionary purposes during the time when choosing the fittest and fastest winners of natural selection to be revered leaders of our society was a matter of life and death. However now, in a more developed world, the purest form of stark achievement in academics, athletics, etc. is not actually enough to qualify people as thoughtful leaders and certainly not actually enough to quality people as having high moral standards.
I’ve grown up in a world striving for success both in academics and athletics and those who excelled in either of those areas were revered by their peers, by parents, by teachers and coaches, as superior. The Ivy league-ers are legends, and seen as wildly more intelligent and thus their opinions more valid than anyone else’s. The fast swimmers, the top ten in New England, the nationals qualifiers, the Olympic Trials qualifiers, the Olympians, are revered as celebrities who could do whatever they wanted and suffer little to no social repercussions for their wrongdoings. Don’t get me wrong, if a fast swimmer does something morally incorrect or something as purely a destructive act of dominance and the coach witnesses it, the swimmer will get punished with a tough practice and/or get yelled at. But, the swimmers’ peers will still watch in awe as the elite swimmer completes the set, and as how the coach still favors and holds the elite to the highest respect.
Google gives two definitions for the word ‘integrity’: 1) the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness; 2) the state of being whole and undivided. Isn’t it funny how the same word can have two completely different meanings? It may seem that they are similar definitions, and that is perhaps why people are confused when people who have definition #2 of integrity, do things that contradict definition #1. There is a difference between being able to commit to something to an elite level, to “the state of being whole and undivided” in commitment to a sport, to schoolwork and being able to commit to “moral uprighteousness”. The problem is that seemingly superhuman levels of commitment to achievement in a sport and in academics do not equate to that same commitment to moral integrity, as is commonly mistaken and surprising.
Image Credits: http://www.eonline.com/news/ryan_lochte
Take Ryan Lochte for example, I grew up revering Ryan Lochte for his godly speed in the water (and not to mention, his good looks). It was every swimmer’s dream to meet Ryan Lochte, to interact with any part of his godly essence. Even with his TV show “What Would Ryan Lochte Do”, showcasing his mindlessness, I and many others dismissed the show as propaganda that portrayed him as a caricature of stupidity for entertainment purposes. To be fair, it probably was. However, the point is, despite this display of his foolishness, Ryan Lochte was still my hero, still our hero, still a hero of the swimming community. Now, the current scandals surrounding Ryan Lochte and his teammates of the US Olympic team Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger seem to be flooding the media. Ryan Lochte blatantly lied to the police about vandalizing a gas station bathroom in Rio after coming back to the Olympic village with his buddies after a late night out ((http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/19/sport/us-swimmers-olympics-robbery-questions). I, like many other people in the swimming community, was shocked at Ryan Lochte’s crime. I never thought that my childhood hero could be capable of committing an actual criminality: and then lying about it. Even his apology, though evident that he is “grateful for [his] USA Swimming teammates and the USOC, and appreciate[s] all of the efforts of the IOC, Rio ‘16 Host Committee”, still does not acknowledge that the crime he committed was an actual crime. Lochte justifies his actions by how “traumatic” it is “to be out late with your friends in a foreign country -and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave”. HE STILL INSISTS THAT HIS ACCOUNT OF THE INCIDENT IS TRUTHFUL EVEN WHEN THERE IS CLEAR EVIDENCE AGAINST IT.
Image Credits: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_299...
Another example of elite achievement used to justify criminal action is the case with Brock Turner. In which, a white male member of the elite Stanford University swim team, was convicted of rape. The Stanford University swim team is the epitome of achievement, its members are the future Olympians, who also managed to score perfect scores on the SAT. Every single media coverage of this particular incident felt the need to include his elite status of achievement. In fact, his elite status of achievement allowed his parents to excuse him from suffering the full penalty for his actions because he no longer was able to enjoy his steak, because he has such a bright, and unbelievably secure, future ahead of him because of his in classroom and in pool achievement. (http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/06/us/sexual-assault-br... , https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2852614-Le...). Turner, a kid with a bright future, was only given 6 months in prison for the felony he committed rather than the years of prison his privilege bought him out of. Let’s face it, the fact that the story went viral on the media in the first place is on account of his elite achievement and the public’s shock that someone of such definition 2 integrity would not also consistently uphold definition 1 integrity.
There is already a great conversation in the media surrounding Ryan Lochte’s and Brock Turner’s status as white straight males and the privilege they gain based purely on their demographic; but there needs to more conversation about how some of their extreme privilege comes from the fact that they are highly successful individuals. We need to stop dangerously and recklessly using level of achievement as a merit to excuse peoples’ moral imperfections. To come to a complete halt in this mentality is difficult, but to be aware of our subconscious biases is a good start.
