MEDIA

The truth on skinny and sports

Carl Pettersson has just won the Canadian Open with a mind boggling, birdie-filled come from behind win. But the focus of the Toronto Star’s coverage (July 26, 2010, S1), was not his play but his weight.
It starts with the article’s title: “Open worth the weight” and the opening words: “He’s a roly-poly kind of guy …” Then later on, “Listed at 5-11, 195 pounds – hardly the stature of a perfect athletic specimen …”. The accompanying front section photo shows a man with a large round face and huge double chin, though the 2nd photo (S6) of him and Dean Wilson , the runner up, shows Pettersson as husky but not obese.
Why obsess over Pettersson’s weight? If he can walk the links for days in this heat wave (mid- to high 30’s with the humidity) and play fantastic golf -- rather than collapse and need resuscitation -- why care about his weight or body shape?

Think John Daly, another pro golfer and John Candy clone. Think David Wells, the great and former Blue Jays pitcher with his Santa Claus midsection. Has their weight and body shape hampered their careers and limited their abilities?

Are NFL linemen not pudgy looking? Are sumo wrestlers not human bowling balls? Yet both are considered some of the most powerful and feared men in sports.

And what of the strongest men in the world, the Olympic weight lifters. No Arnold Schwarzenegger body builders in the lot. All are husky men with huge abdomens, because large stomach muscles are the key to lifting weight.
(And if you’re old enough, think back to the wrestlers of the fifties and sixties; tree trunk Yukon Eric or Whipper Billy Watson, Ontario’s own two time world champion, or the rotund Haystacks Calhoun ( just over 6 foot tall and always over 450 pounds). In those days, only the acrobatic wrestlers were slim or body builder shaped.)

So, get over the body image fixation; appreciate the skill and talent.