Agreed – I am certain that the teams know exactly what their players weigh (particularly in the case of players who have gained more weight than their team wants). What is listed on the public roster is another thing entirely.
Walter Payton, who was one of the best running backs in NFL history, was listed at 5’ 10 1/2" and 200 pounds. I’ve read interviews with his former teammates, who claimed that Payton was both shorter than that, and lighter than that. He was an incredible athlete (and a ferocious blocker), but I suspect that the Bears “inflated” his size to make him not appear to be an undersized player.
Which gets to the point I made a few posts ago – in some cases, there’s a player who struggles to stay at the weight that the team wants him to play at.
So, it’s important, but it gets back to “is it information that is vital for the fan to have access to?” I’d argue that, generally, no, it’s not.
Only as something to debate and gossip about. It’s pretty common to talk about a player showing up to training camp in awful shape, or great shape. That’s the case in baseball too. You hear that chatter on sports radio frequently.
Exactly so, and I think that it’s particularly damaging for athletes (or, really, anyone) of any gender who struggle with weight, as well as for women overall, due to societal obsession over women’s weights.
Most women have been conditioned to be sensitive about their weight, independent of anything else about them. So why would athletes be any different - especially if in a sport where they are fairly or unfairly encouraged to maintain a certain weight (relevant in some sports) or appearance or body type?
Who really cares about this or needs to know? Why should the athlete share this information if they do not wish to? I don’t know why they list it for male athletes in sports where this is unimportant. I guess it is traditional in football and things like wrestling or boxing, and probably inflated as often as not.
Doctors do give general advice to women about healthy eating and exercise. I do not think the message is lost, and being reasonably diplomatic is often a sensible choice. I doubt most doctors would have difficulty stating this message so that it is clearly understood to include weight, so I ask for a cite. Many men are also sensitive about this topic, and perhaps becoming more so. In medical school, the typical adult male weight in practice problems is often given as 70 kg (154 lbs) for some reason, maybe it was true eighty years ago, and pretty much every male doctor and many other men are heavier than this, at least in Canada.
It’s traditional because it’s necessary information that would affect the game. Inflation only occurs in weighted sports in the heavyweight divisions where there’s no significant upper limit, otherwise the athletes are publicly weighed wearing minimal clothing, or naked if necessary to make weight.
It affects a few games and makes little difference in most. In many professional or high level sports, most of the athletes have essentially the same body type and this gives them advantages that make it much more likely they will reach that level. In some team sports like football this is still true but also defined by position. Yes, there are many exceptions.
A few sports have weight classes; one might expect higher totals from a heavier weightlifter. None of the World’s Strongest Men are small, or reportedly, steroid free.
In what pro level sports without weight classes would it make a critical difference if the weight was fifteen pounds lighter or heavier than you expected? Other things usually matter more.
Hockey is another example where the actual size of player is concealed by padding, and as a full contact sport it’s important to know how big the guy is you are about to check or punch. Most other sports don’t really matter because as I said many posts ago, you can see for yourself how big the players are, and it’s not a specific weight that matters.
It is traditional to list the weights of men even if it doesn’t matter because men mostly don’t care. Rarely do male athlete’s care about their weight in any way unrelated to their sport. I don’t think women in sports are all that sensitive to it either, most are in great shape and don’t have much reason to watch their weight except in terms of athletic performance. They still may not like listing their weight when it’s not relevant to their weight though, that carries too much baggage with it.
People who are good at a sport have often been playing it for many years. The conditioning of women being sensitive to their weight, for a specific female athlete, has likely already been going on for decades and may be unrelated to her current athleticism, appearance, charisma, skill or anything else.
For example, I know more than a few women who were told decades ago something along the lines of “you are too big to be a ballet dancer” (or whatever) and they still feel aggrieved and upset by these things decades later.
One tries to be diplomatic as a doctor in part because most people who are heavier than they would like to be.are already aware of this. It is always easier to say something than to do it. Gentle reminders tend to work better. Of course, people differ and exceptions abound.
You really not going to bet on a hockey team only because a few of the players weigh a few pounds less or more? Hockey is a game where you must have good levels of almost every athletic quality - strength, coordination, stamina, position sense, resilience and many different skills… and many good players are surprisingly skinny beneath the padding. It’s a physical game, sure, but far more than that.
Why? Why is knowing it important? In, say, basketball or soccer*, are the heights and weights of the players even anywhere close to as important as things like actual performance statistics (shooting percentage, rebounding, scoring, etc.), when it comes to choosing which team to bet on?
And, knowing that, in sports like these, which do not have specific rules about height or weight, and that the “listed” measurements on the rosters may be a fiction anyway, why would gamblers rely on them?
*Example sports chosen because the U.S. has professional sports leagues for both men and women, getting back to your original point.
I’m having a hard time coming up with a sport where weight wouldn’t be relevant. Certainly it’s relevant in cycling, the OP’s example.
Do we NEED to know it? Of course not. We don’t need to watch sports at all. But if the sport is of interest, then all of the various factors that influence success in the sport will also be of interest.
Relevant to who? I can estimate someone’s weight in cycling clothing pretty easily if I need it, but I don’t see how it’s relevant to the sport or the fans. I may want to know it to see if it correlates with performance (climbing, sprinting, etc) but it doesn’t change my appreciation of the sport. Other teams aren’t going to base strategy on the reported weights of another rider, so why is it needed?
Major sports consume a lot of public resources and regulation is needed for to guard public interests. In order to assure that these sports are honest and properly conducted public information regarding the condition of players is sometimes necessary. I don’t see that outside of weighted sports like boxing and MMA, or jockey’s weights in horse racing that the exact weights of players are always vital, but fairly accurate numbers are necessary to keep track of the physical condition of players when their condition is integral to the rules of the game. In baseball and football it is in several ways including a contractual basis and oversight of sports in general. That makes that weight information a matter of public interest. Athletes should expect have their physical statistics kept and made public under the appropriate conditions. Doesn’t mean the sports media has to publish all that info just because it’s available either.
I would recommend women athletes openly discuss general weight issues with other women in an effort to focus on good health. I assume this is done already but it needs more attention. Physically fit women are the most beautiful works of art that exist, if they openly shared their weights it might help other women concentrate on physical fitness instead of the numbers on a scale. Hopefully, societal expectations are hard to get rid of.
Could you please give an example of a situation in which it would be in the public interest (and not just because “fans want to know”) to have such information be made available to fans?