A study done at Indiana University and published in the March 2014 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine tracked 232 university elite athletes when they were between 40 and 65 years of age and found that many of them had sustained injuries during their athletic careers that led to having difficulty staying physically active. They also found that they tended to be more depressed, fatigued, and suffered from insomnia more often than those athletes in college who stayed active, but were not participating on teams.
They also found that compared to male and female non-collegiate athletes they were more than twice as likely to report physical activity limitations as same age populations. Two thirds of these athletes sustained a major sports injury and 38% sustained a chronic injury. On the other hand, only 28% of non-collegiate athletes sustained a major injury and 26% had a chronic injury.
College athletics are a major injury and many athletes are looked at as commodities. While sports in general are a very good thing for sustaining good health, there are boundaries that we should be respecting.
