sports heroes essay

Heroes: What They Do & Why We Need Them

A commentary on today's heroes, category archives: sports heroes, my hero roberto clemente and the night that happiness died.

What is the recipe for heroism? Because heroism is in the eye of the beholder, there is no set list of ingredients. But research reveals that especially powerful and iconic heroes are perceived to possess at least a few of the following characteristics: (1) They have an exceptional talent; (2) They have a strong moral compass; (3) They incur significant risk; and (4) They make the ultimate sacrifice while helping others.

Roberto Clemente was one of those rare and extraordinary individuals who beautifully, and tragically, fit this mold of a great hero. Today, nearly five decades after his untimely death, Clemente’s accomplishments, selflessness, and charisma make him an unforgettable hero.

It was the way he lived — and the way he died — that made Clemente an extraordinary individual.

Former major league baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn once said of Clemente, “He had about him the touch of royalty.” Duane Rieder, Director of the Clemente museum, said, “There was something about him that was magical.”

Dozens of schools, hospitals, parks, and baseball fields bear his name today. What did Clemente do to earn such veneration?

We won’t delve into many details of Clemente’s genius on the baseball field. We will say that while playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 to 1972, he won multiple batting titles, gold glove awards, world championships, and most valuable player awards. He hit for average and he hit for power. He possessed great speed and a rocket of a throwing arm.

Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully once said, “Clemente could field a ball in New York and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania.”

People who knew Clemente argue that as great as he was a player, he was an even better human being. When traveling from city to city as a player, he routinely visited sick children in local hospitals. According to author David Maraniss, Clemente spent significant time in Latin American cities, where he would often walk the streets with a large bag of coins, searching out poor people.

Wrote Maraniss: “To the needy strangers he encountered in Managua, Clemente asked, “What’s your name? How many in your family?” Then he handed them coins, two or three or four, until his bag was empty.”

Clemente once said, “ Any time you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on this Earth .”

To this day, the manner in which Clemente died still brings people to tears. In late December of 1972, he heard that Managua, Nicaragua, had been devastated by a massive earthquake. Clemente immediately began arranging emergency relief flights from Puerto Rico. He soon learned, however, that the aid packages on the first three flights never reached victims of the quake. Apparently, corrupt officials had diverted those flights. Clemente decided to accompany the fourth relief flight to ensure that the relief supplies would be delivered to the survivors.

The airplane he chartered for a New Year’s Eve flight, a Douglas DC-7, had a history of mechanical problems and was overloaded by 5,000 pounds. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed into the ocean off the coast of Puerto Rico, killing the 38 year-old Clemente and three others.

News of Clemente’s death spread quickly. In Puerto Rico, New Year’s Eve celebrations ground to a halt. “The streets were empty, the radios silent, except for news about Roberto,” said long-time friend Rudy Hernandez. “Traffic? Except for the road near Punta Maldonado, forget it. All of us cried. All of us who knew him and even those who didn’t wept that week.”

Nick Acosta, another friend, summed up the fateful night that Clemente died. “It was the night the happiness died,” he said.

Check out this short video showcasing Clemente’s selfless heroism:

Jimmy Valvano: The Hero Who Taught Us How To Live

When James “Jimmy V” Valvano was seventeen years old, he wrote down his dreams on an index card. On that card, he wrote that he would play college basketball, become a head coach, win a game in Madison Square Garden and, finally, cut down the nets after winning a National Championship.

At age thirty-six, Jim Valvano could take that crumpled index card out of his pocket and cross off everything on the list. He had done it all.

Since I was little, Jimmy V has been my hero simply because his North Carolina State Wolfpack Men’s Basketball team is the greatest underdog story of all time. However, when delving deeper into the various taxonomies and exploring the definition of heroism, I have been able to identify that it is the classic come-from-behind story: someone who once walked among us, as an ordinary person, accomplishing what was deemed impossible.

Jimmy V can be identified as the classic, odds beater/underdog by three heroism scientists named Zeno Franco, Kathy Blau, and Phil Zimbardo. In 2011, these three scholars published a Situation-Based Taxonomy of Heroes . Jimmy V is a true underdog in the way his team won a championships it had no business winning, and in the way he fought cancer with bravery, dignity, and class.

Sadly, Jimmy V would face an opponent that would be the most challenging of his life: cancer.

One of the features of the Joseph Campbell ‘s hero’s journey is the return , in which the hero gives back and shares the knowledge learned from their transition from layperson to hero. Despite all of the incredible things he accomplished while healthy, it was all the things Jimmy V did while sick that solidified his heroism, in my eyes. During the final 10 months of his life, Jimmy V utilized his coaching platform, sharing personal anecdotes and vibrant insight into his life as a patient in hopes of spreading awareness of the disease that has taken so many.

Jimmy V did not shy away from the public eye, as showcased in his ten minute acceptance speech upon receiving the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 1993 ESPY Awards. He was not afraid to show the world the truth about cancer: crying in interviews and struggling to walk. He knew he would lose his final battle in his life after winning so many, but his spirit, charisma, and genuine heart are things that will live on forever.

The best stories in sports are those that transcend the playing field or court. They are the stories of those who climb the latter of success, attaining achievement and, often times, in the most famed stories, coping with the agony of loss. The 1983 NC State Wolfpack has one of the most storied runs of all time. That run is nothing without my hero, Jim Valvano, who could be seen as falling shy of a hero because he lost his battle with cancer.

However, like Jimmy V said, “… That does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live”.

Below is a clip of Jimmy V’s inspired speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Meghan Dillon is an undergraduate enrolled in Scott Allison’s Heroes and Villains First-Year Seminar at the University of Richmond. She composed this essay as part of her course requirement. Meghan and her classmates are contributing authors to the forthcoming book, Heroes of Richmond, Virginia: Four Centuries of Courage, Dignity, and Virtue.

Muhammad Ali: The Odyssey of a Heroic Champion

Declaring oneself a hero doesn’t ordinarily do the trick. But former Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali was an international hero in the eyes of sports fans and ordinary citizens around the world. Ali began calling himself “The Greatest” early in his career, and clearly alienated many. Now people generally realize that his braggadocio was always part of the act, something that enabled him to perform at his best in the ring, and entertain and inspire millions.

His odyssey to heroism was complicated, but by the time of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, there was no question as to which American medal winner would light the torch at that year’s Games. Two years later, it was only a bit of a surprise when corporate America fully endorsed Ali by putting him on a box of Wheaties cereal, The Breakfast of Champions. The citation on the box credited Ali’s impact in sports and beyond: “he was a courageous man who fought for his beliefs” and “became an even larger force outside the ring with his humanitarian efforts.”

When Ali, then Cassius Clay, won the heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in 1964, large portions of white America were uneasy. Although Liston was widely associated with organized crime, and seemed like something of a thug, rumors also circulated about Clay being associated with “Black Muslims.” Many people found this truly frightening. And although Ali’s wit and boxing skills were extremely entertaining, almost as many were turned off by the talking and bragging of “The Louisville Lip” or “Gaseous Cassius.”

Eventually Ali got the chance to win back the boxing title he had lost while he was banned from fighting, and that he failed to regain when he met Joe Frazier in 1971. The year was 1974, ten years after he first won the title from Sonny Liston. He fought a classic battle against George Foreman in the African nation of Zaire, now called Congo. That year he was named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated and it was clear that most Americans had come to embrace a talented and dedicated athlete who had both overcome racial and cultural barriers and had the courage to define himself and to help and encourage other black Americans to do the same.

After regaining the title from Foreman, Ali fought for several more years. But the numerous punches he had absorbed during his long career made him the victim of Parkinson’s syndrome, a neurological disorder which makes motor activity, including walking and talking, extremely difficult. During his lifetime, Ali fought outside the ring for those he regards as his people, and he is a hero to most of America. His skill, his struggle, his commitment, his charm and his charisma were inspirational. He was one of the most recognized and admired people in the world. Both he and the nation have come a long way since he burst on the scene as a sassy young fighter who perplexed or repelled much of the country. For many, he will always remain an important hero.

– – – – – –

Jackie Robinson: The Fearless and Determined Hero

It is hard to believe that the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper would go on to become baseball’s civil rights legend and not only change the way we look at sports but also the way we look at race relations in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was ambitious, determined, and fearless on his journey to break through the prevailing race barriers of his time.

Born in a cabin in Cairo, Georgia, on January 31, 1919 and one of four children in the Robinson family, Jackie grew up extremely poor. The Robinsons sharecropped for a white family called the Sassers, where they planted and grew crops in exchange for a place to live. Six months into Jackie’s life, his father deserted the family and soon after, Marlie Robinson, Jackie’s mother, decided to move to Pepper Street in Pasadena, California with the hope of giving her children a better life. Soon, Jackie realized his athletic ability, and the rest was history.

After his tour of duty, Jackie left the military with the rank of second lieutenant. Later on while playing baseball for the Monarchs of the Negro American Baseball League, Branch Rickey, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, saw Jackie as the perfect candidate to fulfill his vision of bringing African-Americans in into league. In 1947, his first year with the Dodgers, Robinson earned rookie of the year and even though some people respected Robinson for his abilities and courage, others issued him death threats. During Robinson’s ten year career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team won a total of six national league titles, the World Series in 1955 and he personally won the title of most valuable player in the league in 1949. He retired with a .311 batting average and stole home 19 times.

After examining the actions and life of Jackie Robinson it becomes clear that he is both a highly moral individual, as well as highly competent. In the words of Rev. Jesse Jackson, “Jackie Robinson’s impact was greater than just that of baseball. He was a transforming agent and in the face of such hostility and such meanness and violence, he did it with such amazing dignity. He had to set the course for the country,” Robinson was strong, resilient, charismatic, and inspiring, many qualities that make up the great eight of characteristics for a hero.

However, these qualities were not just present during his years playing baseball. After he retired from the sport, he used his unique position and fame as a platform to call for an end to racial injustice. His work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and with the Southern Christian Leadership Council helped create many new opportunities for african-americans as he spoke on the injustices of racial segregation.

It was in the year 1962, his first year of eligibility, that Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Jackie Robinson’s actions both on and off the field served as a means of inspiration to a whole generation of minorities who were in desperate need of a hero of their own. His breaking of the baseball color line helped to also break various other color lines all across the United States. His unbending principles and control under this intense and demanding role was equally balanced against his passion for winning. Because of this, Jackie Robinson is a hero for both the sport of baseball and all African-Americans.

Shavarsh Karapetyan: The Underwater Battle of the Champion

Shavarsh Karapetyan is a retired Soviet Armenian finswimmer. He is an 11-time World Record holder, 17-time World Champion, 13-time European Champion and 7-time Soviet Champion.

Despite his prolific accomplishments in the water, Karapetyan is much more well- known in the former USSR for his heroic, self-sacrificing actions on September 16, 1976. Just as he finished a 12 mile training run with his brother alongside the Yerevan Lake in Yerevan, Armenia, a trolleybus veered out of control, fell from the dam wall, and crashed into the reservoir, 80 feet from shore and 33 feet deep into the water. Karapetyan swam to the bus, and despite almost zero visibility in the dirty water, broke the back window of the bus with his legs and began pulling people out.

The trolleybus was crowded with as many as 92 passengers and Karapetyan knew he had little time, spending approximately 30-35 seconds for each person he saved. Karapetyan managed to rescue 20 people (he picked up many more, but 20 of them survived), before the combined effects of the freezing water and wounds from broken glass rendered him unconscious, where he remained for 45 days. The damages sustained from his selfless, heroic act included subsequent sepsis (due to the presence of raw sewage in the lake water), and lung complications, ending his athletic career. Today’s experts agree that no one but Shavarsh could have been physically able to do what did, and the passengers on the bus are lucky that he was there when the crash happened.

To this day, Karapetyan doesn’t consider his act as heroic or extraordinary. When asked how he managed to do what he did, he humbly replied, “I was simply closer to the crash than anyone else.” He also admitted that he would have rather died than not jump into the water that day. That was his only choice. He simply did what he knew was right, what he was supposed to do in such situation, no matter how difficult and dangerous it was.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Karapetyan’s feat is that he wasn’t satisfied with the number of people he managed to save. Later describing the incident, he said, “I knew that I could only save so many lives, I was afraid to make a mistake. It was so dark down there that I could barely see anything. One of my dives, I accidentally grabbed a seat instead of a passenger… I could have saved a life instead. That seat still haunts me in my nightmares.” Karapetyan managed to save the lives of 20 strangers in the dark, toxic waters, and he’s still haunted by the 21st he could have saved instead of the seat cushion.

When his wounds healed and he felt better, Shavarsh got back to practices and managed to set yet another world record swimming with a scuba set for a 0.25 mile distance in 3 minutes and 6.2 seconds. This was his eleventh and last world record. He couldn’t proceed with his athletic career, as his injuries severely impaired his health, and he was forced to leave his outstanding sports career behind.

Karapetyan made a great moral contribution that was only possible through his exceptional swimming ability. His heroic act was one of incredible personal sacrifice and valor. While he doesn’t follow the typical monomythic hero path, his courageous behavior, coupled with an admirable sense of humility, exemplifies the heroic definition of someone who makes great contributions that require both great morality and great ability.

Throughout his life, Shavarsh never sought recognition and never claimed any credit for his super-heroic acts. After leaving his sports career he has been living a simple life, working as a school principal and raising his three children. Today he owns and operates a small shoe repair shop in Moscow called “Second Breath.”

Sharon Novikov, Matt Rosenthal, & Russell Pine are undergraduate students at the University of Richmond. They wrote this essay as part of their course requirement while enrolled in Dr. Scott Allison’s Social Psychology class.

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Opinion: Jackie Robinson was a true sports hero

Scott Simon

A portrait of the Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

A portrait of the Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform.

Editor's note: Seventy-five years ago today, on April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond at Ebbets Field and broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Scott Simon wrote this essay in 2019 for what would have been Robinson's 100th birthday.

I try not to say, "sports hero." An athlete may be electrifying and adored, and do much for their communities. But real heroes are people who run into burning buildings to save lives. Heroes are people who enrich the lives of others — and sometimes — move along history.

There is one athlete who has to be called a hero.

Jackie Robinson was born a hundred years ago next week, Jan. 31, 1919, in the small, segregated town of Cairo, Ga., the youngest of five children. A year later, his father left, and the Robinsons moved to southern California, where Jackie Robinson became one of the most celebrated young athletes in America.

He became 2nd Lt. Robinson in the segregated U.S. Army during World War II, but was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a bus on the U.S. Army base in Ft. Hood, Texas.

Jackie Robinson was proudly unapologetic and was acquitted. As he said — many times — "I am not concerned with your liking or disliking me. ... All I ask is that you respect me."

He began to play baseball in the old Negro Leagues after the war. There were many talented stars there, like Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, who could and would eventually be signed. But Branch Rickey, who ran the Brooklyn Dodgers, foresaw that the first African-American player in major league baseball would also be the star of a daily national drama.

"I had to get a man who could carry the burden," said Mr. Rickey. "I needed a man to carry the badge of martyrdom."

He signed Jackie Robinson.

He broke into the big leagues in 1947. Most Americans saw baseball then in black and white. Jackie Robinson brought fire. Bigots in the stands hurled curses — and sometimes bottles and threats. Some opposing players slid into him with their spikes. Some opposing pitchers threw at his head. Jackie Robinson played, calmly, nobly and superbly under that profane hail.

When civil rights marchers of the 1960s walked across a bridge in Selma, or the streets of Birmingham, through a blizzard of police sticks, snarling dogs and water cannons, they could hold in their minds the image of Jackie Robinson, walking brave and unbowed to home plate.

Jackie Robinson was an athlete, not Martin Luther King Jr. in baseball stripes. But his own story galvanized his life, and when he left baseball, he became an activist for integration and justice. As President Barack Obama said, "There's a direct line between Jackie Robinson and me." The history Jackie Robinson made helped make America better.

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Athletes Are Role Models, But What Do They Teach Us?

“Athletes are role models… [but] what do they teach us?”

That’s the question that former Black Panther member and politically active prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal left readers with in his interview with activist sports writer Dave Zirin back in 2007 for Zirin’s book , “Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports.”

Abu-Jamal, an impactful activist despite decades of incarceration, mentioned himself that he did not fit in cleanly to the archetype of the mid-century American teenage boy. Sure, Abu-Jamal had idols growing up, but instead of Willie Mays or Henry Aaron, he idolized Noam Chomsky. And like his idol, the man known as the “Voice for the Voiceless” saw sports as “a diversion from the real struggle.”

But by 2007, Abu-Jamal had softened that stance. Though still skeptical of sports, he understood their power and pervasiveness in our society, especially in creating role models for children and teenagers. In the 1960s, as Abu-Jamal dove more fully into activism, the young man did idolize one athlete: Muhammad Ali.

The Ali of today has been stripped of much of his historical luster, largely in the name of commercialization and blind patriotism. Much like Michael Jordan , his athletic prowess and pervasiveness were turned into corporate profit and public relations fodder later in his life. But during his political heyday, he was there in the streets, protesting and throwing away monetary gain for lasting and impactful fame. He was The Greatest, and at a young age, Abu-Jamal latched on to him from a distance, not as much for his athletic prowess but for his actualization of a ‘man of the people’ persona and his bold political stances.

In the decades since Abu-Jamal’s youth, money has become far more intertwined with sports, and at the same time, athletes have become even more pervasive and globalized. Jordan, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, all of these athletes and many more can be recognized and are adored across hundreds of countries thanks to the rise of mass social media .

But while the sports world has provided a site of economic uplift for a few, it has coincided with the deepening inequality and globalized capitalism that plagues our society today. In this new sports universe, with increased visibility and economic interest, what do the athletes of today teach us? And what values do these role models represent?

Growing up, I had a few sports idols. Playing primarily baseball as a kid, I modeled my swing after MLB superstar Barry Bonds, my fielding after Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal, and my baserunning after veteran Juan Pierre, another Dodger of the early 2000s. When I started pitching, I channeled Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel, two up-and-coming closers of the day now entering the twilights of their MLB careers.

In these idols, I found on-field inspiration. I tried to hit home runs, make slick plays, and steal bases like my heroes. When I started watching hockey, I adopted my favorite player’s number as my own, and Anze Kopitar’s #11 remained plastered to my back for nearly a decade.

At first glance, these men, for all of their skills on the field, did little to change my young mind off of it, which certainly is due largely in part to the media and the primarily conservative institutions that major sports leagues have become. Modeling myself after these heroes, I cared about personal and team success on the field. But beyond that, I wasn’t greatly impacted by their exploits. Was I?

In his interview with Zirin, Abu-Jamal talked frankly about the downside of sports figures today as role models. With their futures tied to contracts worth millions of dollars, and with thousands of young athletes hot on their tails, the modern athlete has little room to deviate from the path of least resistance: obeying authority and working hard.

That was the case, at the very least in his view, back in 2007. And as a child of that time, the role models I listed above largely follow that model. Bonds was outspoken, but was covered less as an activist and more as a pariah. And Furcal, Pierre, and Kopitar all largely stayed out of even local media as far as I could tell.

Are today’s athletes the same? In my view, not entirely.

To become a role model, athletes have to be visible. With TV and social media, this isn’t a high bar to reach. But still, role model athletes are generally those who receive the most media attention, and to capture that attention, one must be a star at their craft.

Recently, those who have reached the acme of the sports world are beginning to speak out. Sure, there aren’t athletes leading tens of thousands of protestors as was the case in the 1960s. But the contributions of NBA players during the George Floyd protests, WNBA players during the Georgia runoff election, and NBA and MLB players following the murder of Jacob Blake all account for more unified activism than athletes were accomplishing even five years ago.

To be fair, Colin Kaepernick still is without work in the NFL, but his mantle has been lifted by athletes that corporate collusion simply cannot afford to keep out of the spotlight.

In this new wave of activist sports role models, there is one clear constant: on-field talent. When James or Giannis Antetokounmpo speak out against social injustice, owners cannot simply choose to leave their talents on the bench or avoid signing them altogether, as they have done with Kaepernick. These are MVPs playing during a moment where players across the NBA, MLB, and NFL are having success demanding trades and demanding to be released from their contracts.

In the burgeoning era of player empowerment and individual choice, which is occurring without a rise in minority executives or the end of oppressive institutions like the Draft, players are becoming more and more powerful and less dependent on lily white franchise owners. Even more powerfully, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs has already earned enough to gain entry into the ownership class , as he and his fiancee have purchased stakes in his local MLB and NWSL franchises.

The connection of money and sports certainly is not all positive though. As Abu-Jamal alludes to, money leads to silence and sticking to the status quo that has allowed you to earn that money. It also means not only that activists like Kaepernick can be left off of rosters, but that men far less deserving of being role models end up finding a way to stick on them. But for those whose talents stand out even on the brightest stages comes the special privilege of being able to speak one’s mind and keep one’s grip on the spotlight.

Bill Russell, an early activist athlete who is one of the greatest NBA players of all time, is a paradigmatic example of this. In a career spanning two decades, Russell made the All-Star game in all but his rookie season. He won 11 NBA championships and five MVP awards playing for the Boston Celtics. At the time, his prowess could not win over the bigoted minds of many Boston fans , which meant the Celtics failed to sell out arenas at home despite full houses on the road.

Today, two players who have spent time on the court in Boston represent the way forward for the activist superstar in a world of profit-driven activist repression. One is Kyrie Irving , an outspoken veteran who is also an All-Star and NBA champion. The other is Jaylen Brown , a 24-year-old rising star whose demeanor and skill on the court are just as respected as his intelligence and activism off of it.

For young people around the country, and especially for young sports fans, hopefully these two men have become widely adopted role models. As is especially the case for the controversial Irving, who toys with the media and who purposefully strays from the beaten path of the 2000s star athlete, these two are certainly too skilled for the league to discard them as activist distractions. Instead, their activism is able to be amplified in a way that is unique to the current decade.

Through social media, both their own and that of highlight purveyors, their exploits become more commonly known each night they lace up before a game. And for all of the hundreds of thousands followers they gain for skillful dribbling and scoring, they also influence how people interact with their sports heroes.

When they see a post from one of these two, and countless other WNBA and NBA athletes especially, they are just as likely to see a post surrounding social justice or celebrating Blackness as they are to see one of a highlight dunk. And that is the transcendent, and hopefully lasting promise, of today’s rising class of activist athletes, the idealist role models we need.

Today’s role model athletes are also unique to those of decades past in another powerful way: there are far more high-profile women with international sports acclaim. From Serena Williams and newcomer Naomi Osaka on the tennis court to Megan Rapinoe and other members of the U.S. World Cup champion squad, women are making rapid headway when it comes to superstardom in the 21st century sports world. WNBA athletes are also becoming increasingly visible, and are amongst the most politically active athletes across all major sports in the U.S.

Comparing today’s athlete role models favorably to those of my past may not be entirely fair though. There may still be positive impacts these heroes left on my life that are invisible through the activist lens I’ve adapted from Abu-Jamal: Almost none of my sports role models growing up were white. Bonds and Pierre are Black, Furcal hails from the Dominican Republican, and Jansen from the small island of Curaçao. The only baseball picture in my room features Ichiro Suzuki, the most famous Japanese athlete arguably of all time and it is side-by-side with posters of Rafer Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, famous Black track stars at UCLA.

Maybe that representation didn’t have any effect on me. But at the very least, I not only have avoided and derided the path of bigotry, but have dedicated my academic life to studying political representation and agency for minorities and immigrants. It certainly could be a coincidence. But then again, it could also be that my non-white, non-activist role models, largely silent in the face of social inequality and injustice, activated me after all, just by being on the field.

Art by Angela Liang for The UCSD Guardian

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Athletes as heroes and role models: an ancient model

A common argument for the social value of sport is that athletes serve as heroes who inspire people – especially young people – to strive for excellence. This argument has been questioned by sport philosophers at a variety of levels. Not only do athletes seem unsuited to be heroes or role models in the conventional sense, it is unclear more generally what the social and educational value of athletic excellence could be. In this essay, I construct an argument for the social and educational value of sport built upon the relationship between athletes, heroes, and the song culture that celebrated them in ancient Greece. On this model, athletes are neither heroes nor role models in the conventional sense. Rather, athletes, athletics, and the poets who extolled them were part of a cultural conspiracy to celebrate and inspire virtue (aretē) by connecting a community with its heroic past. Festivals such as the Olympic Games, but also local events such as funeral games, educated and unified communities by cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for virtue and by inspiring youth to strive for it. Ancient athletes were not heroes, rather they re-enacted heroic struggles, thereby experiencing heroic virtues, and inspiring both artists and spectators to bond with the higher ideals implied by their shared belief in divine ancestry. In this way, athletes, athletics, and the media that celebrated them played important social and educational roles. Insofar as modern sport performs a similar service, its association with heroism and with moral education may ultimately be justified.

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Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies XXX

Heather Reid

In this essay, I interrogate the value of modern Olympic heroes by examining the link between heroes and athletics in Ancient Greek culture. This is a useful exercise not just because our modern Games have their roots in Ancient Greece, but also because heroes had an important educational function there—one linked with athletics and justly criticized by Socrates and others. Ancient heroes were human, not just in the sense of being mortal but also in the sense of being flawed. Nevertheless, their stories served as inspiring ethical paradigms. Heracles’ labors were even chiseled into the metopes of Olympia’s grand Temple of Zeus. I begin by examining the ethos of ancient Greek heroes, show how it was linked to sport and the celebration of victory, then I will then consider the risks and rewards of this system as moral education. Finally, I will return to the question of modern Olympic heroes, examining if and how they too may function as moral educators in light of this ancient heritage and modern Olympic realities. Throughout I will argue for the value of an “athletic ethos” that demands voluntary struggle on behalf of the greater good, which is motivated and compensated by the public celebration of aretē (excellence, virtue).

This book examines the relationship between athletics and philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome focused on the connection between athleticism and virtue. It begins by observing that the link between athleticism and virtue is older than sport, reaching back to the athletic feats of kings and pharaohs in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. It then traces the role of athletics and the Olympic Games in transforming the idea of aristocracy as something acquired by birth to something that can be trained. This idea of training virtue through the techniques and practice of athletics is examined in relation to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then Roman spectacles such as chariot racing and gladiator games are studied in light of the philosophy of Lucretius, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. The concluding chapter connects the book’s ancient observations with contemporary issues such as the use of athletes as role models, the relationship between money and corruption, the relative worth of participation and spectatorship, and the role of females in sport. The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue and the spirit of free enquiry.

Aikaterini-Iliana Rassia

The Classical Review

Georgios Mouratidis

CHS Research Bulletin

Moral education in ancient Greece engaged in what I call a cultural conspiracy to promote aretē. In order to understand how sport functioned in that system, we need to connect athletic practice with the cultural phenomena that surround it, including myth, ritual, song, dance, literature, and visual art. We need, in short, to understand “The Ancient Greek Athletic Spirit,” and to do that we must articulate it in a way that applies across disciplines and over time. I attempt this by describing a three-stage process linked to the terms athlete, athlos, and athlon. I argue that the process derives from the stories of heroes, and claim that athletic practice represents a ritual mimēsis of that process, which cultivates virtue through experiential learning. I connect the process with the stories of Herakles and Atalanta, suggesting that prenuptial footraces for girls may well serve as an educational mimēsis of the heroine’s race with Hippomenēs. I conclude with some reflections on the importance of competition in archaic philosophy, which lays the metaphysical foundation upon which the link among ethics, aesthetics, athletics is built.

Thomas Heine Nielsen

Most people know that in antiquity, as in our day, the Olympics were celebrated every four years. Most classicists know that in antiquity the Olympics were not the only major athletic festival in existence, but formed a part of the famous periodos (“tour”, “circuit”), a series of four athletic festivals which were scheduled with an eye to each other in such a way that every year saw one or two celebrations of games in this most prestigious group of festivals.1

Edmund Stewart

Victory in the great athletic games was widely seen in the Greek world as one of the summits of human achievement. Yet a surprisingly large number of texts present a negative view of athletics, including Xenophanes fr. 2 West and Euripides fr. 282 TrGF. The reasons for this criticism – which has variously been interpreted as a critique of the aristocracy, a polemic against professionalism in sport or the reaction of a minority of intellectuals – remain obscure. This paper argues that opposition to athletics was not political but part of a longstanding debate on the relative merits of different forms of skill (τέχνη). This debate was prompted by widespread economic specialisation and professionalism in the fields of athletics, poetry and philosophy (among others). The criticism of athletics becomes part of a strategy, by which the professional promotes his own form of τέχνη, with the implicit aim of winning respect and financial rewards. Professionals operated in a market for knowledge, one in which they had to sell their skills, justify their fees and counter common prejudices against paid work. Our texts reflect the tendency for professionals to achieve these aims by launching pre-emptive attacks upon their competitors. Athletes became a common target for such invective because their unwavering popularity and success at eliciting rewards in the archaic and classical periods made them a constant target of envy from other professionals.

This book examines the relationship between athletics and philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome with special emphasis on changing ideas about the connection between athleticism and virtue. Its aim is to enable a foundational understanding of ancient sport and philosophy that makes a sincere dialogue with modern practices both possible and fruitful. The book begins by observing that the link between athleticism and virtue is older than sport, reaching back to the athletic feats of kings and pharaohs in early Egypt and Mesopotamia. It then traces the role of athletics and the Olympic Games in transforming of the idea of aristocracy as something acquired by birth to something that can be trained. The idea of training virtue through the techniques and practice of athletics is examined in relation to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then Roman spectacles such as chariot racing and gladiator games are studied in light of the philosophy of Lucretius, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. The concluding chapter connects the book’s ancient observations with contemporary sports issues such as the use of athletes as role models, the relationship between money and corruption, the relative worth of participation and spectatorship, and the role of females in sport. The author argues that there is a strong link between sport and philosophy in the ancient world, calling them offspring of common parents: concern about virtue and the spirit of free enquiry. In order to preserve this connection between enquiry, virtue, and sport, she concludes, we must understand its ancient origins.

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It has become a truism that professional athletes, whether they like it or not, “are” role models for others . Talented sportspeople hardly win every time, and sometimes they do not exemplify fair play. But many athletes convey attributes about performance, character and resilience that draw admiration from fans.

For the youthful , sports stars may prompt efforts to emulate tries, wickets, goals and baskets in backyards or parks. No surprise, then, that professional athletes are assumed to provide a “role model effect” for sport at community levels, whether by stimulating entry into organised activities or by catalysing ongoing participation.

However, researchers have been ambivalent or unconvinced about the efficacy of a “role model effect” in terms of sport engagement.

For example, the 2012 London Olympics – in which British athletes performed exceptionally well – were staged against the policy backdrop of a “participation legacy” – a concerted strategy to increase physical activity across the UK. Despite the headline performances of medal-winning British athletes, overall sport participation rates fell after the Games .

There is, in short, no logical connection between sport fandom and sport exercise. What’s more, the easy assumption that high-performance athletes “inspire” a generation of community-based sport participants is not only unfounded, it is bad policy. That point even applies to sportspeople who have reached the zenith of their profession. In one global survey :

… only 10% of the elite athletes have been inspired by other elite athletes in order to start with their current sport. Mostly they were encouraged by their parents (59%) and friends (28%) to practice their current sport.

Athletes as off-field role models

High-profile athletes are widely feted as public figures outside of sport, as happens with celebrities in other entertainment professions. In sport, though, such recognition is said to come with additional responsibilities, most notably in the assumption that athletes are (or must become) “role models in the community”.

In a contractual sense , athletes are employees when representing their club during community events such as school visits, charity fundraisers, and the like. These are occasions when athletes are expected to promote their sport or to support an organisation aligned with their club.

Whether heartfelt or perfunctory, such actions may be construed as inauthentic, much “like the politician kissing a baby” .

Beyond these official responsibilities, athletes would be naïve to expect the same level of privacy as someone without a public profile. So there is a trade-off, as happens with notable performers in other spheres of life, such as entertainers or politicians.

However, the off-field obligations of an athlete involve significant surveillance. They must notify a National Anti-Doping Authority where they are every day of the year, and must be available for drug testing from 6am to 11pm. A typical part of athlete contracts is the catch-all phrase of “bringing the game into disrepute” , which in practice means that an employer can dismiss an employee for off-field conduct that it deems contrary to the interests of a club or a sport.

In these ways, the off-field expectations of athletes are couched in punitive terms.

Taking a more positive view, it is a common refrain that athletes are role models for, or even in, a wider community. However, this taken-for-granted assumption has not been accompanied by research to explore the efficacy of such claims. There appears to be profound differences between athletes’ self-perception as off-field influencers.

NBA star Charles Barkley once declared that he was “not paid to be a role model” , and that “parents should be role models” . Barkley did not consider himself particularly virtuous as a person, but said that he was well equipped to “wreak havoc on a basketball court” .

By comparison, some athletes have sought an off-field leadership role, particularly when their status as an athlete provides support to like-minded others.

Bachar Houli, an AFL footballer of Muslim faith, has actively sought to engage with the wider Islamic community, and to provide inspiration for Muslim kids who might want to engage in sport. This community engagement role has been supported by Houli’s club, and complements his existing position as a multicultural ambassador for the AFL.

Dual role models?

More than 30 years after Barkley’s declaration that he was unfit to be a role model, there is heightened expectation that all professional athletes, whether they like it or not, are role models both on and off the field. But is this a logical expectation?

As Feezell has argued , “we know about celebrated athletes’ exemplary conduct in sport”, but “there is nothing intrinsic to athletic participation that merits the status of being a moral exemplar” beyond that sport-specific role.

Clubs and leagues certainly have expectations that athletes will conduct themselves “appropriately” during their private lives. This is underpinned by sports’ support for community-focused initiatives such as the White Ribbon Campaign (countering male violence against women) and the Plan B anti-drink-driving promotion.

But it is unclear why athletes have the skills or values to be positioned as custodians of virtue in such initiatives. The underlying assumption appears to be that sport imbues good character. As a consequence, athletes are thought to be “equipped” to exemplify positive character traits both in sport and during their private lives.

Athletes are very visible on the sport field , but much less noticeable outside it. If athletes actually function as role models beyond sport, the public needs some basis upon which to make assessments of their character. Herein lies a problem. As Feezell points out :

… most of us know very little about the athletes whose exploits we admire.

And, therefore, we are not in a position to know if or how they influence others in wider society. This leads to a further problem. The media typically “thrives on scandal and sensationalism” , so stories about public figures “gone bad” are much more likely to appear in the press.

Player welfare managers at professional sports clubs find it very difficult to persuade the media to give prominence to “good deeds” by players; news editors are far more interested in detailing off-field misdemeanours.

Ultimately, then, when a small minority of athletes fails to live up to employer and community expectations, the wider sports profession is tranished as disreputable.

It is difficult to see, in a practical sense, how athletes function as community role models if little is known about them outside of sport, except where – as in the case of Houli – a role as social influencer is both sought and supported.

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Baseball Heroes, the National Pastime, and American Culture

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First Online: 06 September 2023
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Amber Roessner 4

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Baseball Gods ; Baseball Icons ; Kings of the Diamond ; Stars of the National Pastime

As professor of literature and mythology Joseph Campbell ( 2008 ) suggested, a hero is someone who has given their lives to something bigger than themselves.

On October 7, 1925, sports writers for major US metropolitan newspapers and monthly magazines, such as the Youth’s Companion and the Literary Digest , echoed a common refrain after the passing of “a hero of the diamond and of life” – they celebrated the life of peerless New York Giant hurler Christy Mathewson (1880–1925) for his courage, his kindness, his honesty, his self-control, and his sportsmanship during his 17-year baseball career that featured 373 wins, abbreviated only by his fearless tour of duty during World War I that left him plagued with tuberculosis. They offered lengthy tributes to the man who was “bigger than the game itself,” comparing his “manly character” to that of US Presidents George Washington and Theodore...

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Bederman, Gail. 1995. Manliness & civilization: A cultural history of gender and race in the United States, 1880–1917 . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Roessner, Lori Amber. 2011. Coloring America’s pastime: Sporting Life’s coverage of race & the emergence of Baseball’s color line. American Journalism 28 (3): 85–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/08821127.2011.10677789 .

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Roessner, Lori Amber. 2021b. Ghosted gods: Commodifying celebrities, decrying wraiths, and contesting graven images. In Handbook of communication and sport , ed. Michael Butterworth. Boston: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Roessner, A. (2023). Baseball Heroes, the National Pastime, and American Culture. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_2-1

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Editorial and production teams, the mast project, ancient greek heroes, athletes, poetry part i: twelve olympian essays – essay 7: prototyping hēraklēs as a model athlete.

2022.08.01 | By Gregory Nagy

§0. In Essay 6, we have seen that Hēraklēs, as an athlete, demonstrates his role as a culture hero of civilization. His very first Labor, the killing of the Nemean Lion, is a shining example, since the choke-hold that Hēraklēs applies to the beast in killing it exemplifies his athleticism as a champion of an athletic event known as the pankration. And, as we can see from my overall survey of the Labors and the sub-Labors of Hēraklēs in Essay 4, most of these feats performed by the hero can be seen in terms of his prowess as a Strong Man who is acting alone—acting as an idealized example for his people to follow. Here in Essay 7, however, I will consider two myths where the feats of Hēraklēs seem to be different. In the first myth, as we will see, the hero is acting together with a large group, as their leader. In the second myth as well, the hero is figured as a leader—even if he seems at first to be acting quite alone. For analyzing both myths, I will apply in this essay an explanatory model that I will define as prototyping. And, for illustrating what I mean, I have chosen an image that I think is most relevant. We see here a picturing of a Strong Man as the leader of a large grouping of people. But the leader is in this case not Hēraklēs, the quintessential Strong Man of the ancient Greeks, but rather an Indo-European “cognate” Strong Man stemming from medieval Germanic traditions. That other leader is Starkaðr, and the old carved image that we see here pictures him in the heroic role of leading into battle the combined armed forces of Sweden, both army and navy.

§1. Before I attempt my definition of prototyping , I offer a preliminary sketch of the two Greek myths that I have selected for analysis. Both myths are most clearly attested in retellings by Diodorus of Sicily, who as we have seen is dated to the first century BCE. In the first myth, as we read in Diodorus (4.17.1–4.18.2), Hēraklēs in his quest to raid the cattle of Geryon became the leader of a mighty army combined with an equally mighty navy. As for the second myth, I have already highlighted it in Essay 5: we read, again in Diodorus (4.14.1–2), that Hēraklēs was not only the founder of the Olympic Festival but was also a competitor in every athletic event of the first Olympics, and, even more, that he was the victor in each one of these events; Diodorus mentions, as specific examples, the athletic events of (1) competing in the stadion -length footrace, (2) competing in a wrestling match, and (3) competing in the pankration , which as we have seen was a combat sport that combined elements of both wrestling and boxing. In Essay 5, I have already referred to this myth about the founding of the Olympics by Hēraklēs and about his competing in all the athletic events—but without yet saying how the hero actually became the victor in all these competitions. According to the myth as reported in Diodorus (again, 4.14.1–2), Hēraklēs was the victor in all the competitions of the first Olympics because all the other competitors recognized this hero as the only possible victor . The obvious paradox here is that Hēraklēs wins in a footrace where he has no one to race against and in two one-on-one combat matches where he has no one to fight against.

§2. I have analyzed such a mentality in an earlier work, Nagy 2015.04.24 , and in the book Masterpieces of Metonymy (Nagy 2016|2015, 3§14), where I highlight the logic, in myth, of do as I do . For example, as I argued in the essay and in the book that I just cited, divinities can show their worshippers how to worship them by acting as models for the act of worshipping. (This formulation goes back to Nagy 1996a:57, referring to an earlier version of what became an influential book, Patton 2009.)

§3. This paradox, where the gods can be represented in the act of worshipping and can thus become models of worship by showing you how to worship them even though these gods themselves have no one to worship , is comparable to the paradox we have seen in the myth about the founding of the Olympics by the hero Hēraklēs: in this case, the hero can be represented in the act of competing in the athletic events of the very first Olympics and can thus become a model of athletic competition even though Hēraklēs himself had no one to compete against —at least, not on the prototypical occasion.

§4. I am now ready to apply the model of prototyping to the obvious paradox we see in the myth about Hēraklēs as athlete—and also to a not-so-obvious paradox that I hope to highlight in the myth about Hēraklēs as a warrior who leads other warriors. Here the same hero, pictured as leading a vast army and navy, seems in the end to be the one person who has done all the fighting, doing it all by himself, all alone.

§5. That said about the two myths I am considering, I now proceed to my working definition of prototyping . I cannot say that the word has never been used before by anyone, but, in any case, I offer here a new way of using it. Let me say, then, that prototyping is the making of one prototype out of many types of persons or things —even if such types stem from various different times, various different places. Myth can do that: it can make a prototype out of whatever is observed in and by myth. And there may be many varieties of what is observed, but myth will nevertheless be able to retrofit all variations into a singular unity, as if all the observable variants could get traced back and thus get somehow explained, in a unified way, as one unique original .

§6. Such prototyping is what happens to Hēraklēs as he is observed in and by the various different surviving Greek myths that tell about his Labors and his “sub-Labors.” In these myths, Hēraklēs can come across as one and the same person, even if he may have various different roles to play in various different tellings of the myths. And that is because such differences in roles can get leveled out and smoothed over.

§7. The leveling-out and the smoothing-over of differences in the various different roles of Hēraklēs in various different tellings of myths about this hero can lead not only to a sense of uniqueness but even to a kind of certainty about absolute uniqueness. And if Hēraklēs becomes, in the course of time, an absolutely unique warrior or athlete, then he can also become an absolute model for other warriors and athletes.

§8. Thus in the case of myths about Hēraklēs as a Strong Man who leads a mighty army combined with an equally mighty navy, he leads all other warriors by example because he is the absolute and therefore unique example for these warriors. The way that Hēraklēs fights the enemy and faces death is the absolute model for all other warriors, and thus the story of the hero can become the story of all warriors. So, there is no need for myth to highlight the actions of any warrior other than the hero Hēraklēs whenever myth points its camera, as it were, at this hero’s involvement in any action of battle by land or sea. That is why, other than the explicit mention of the mighty army and navy that is led by Hēraklēs, there is no mention of any feats performed by any of the warriors that are being led by the hero in this myth as retold by Diodorus (again, 4.17.1–4.18.2). The Strong Man is not only in the foreground: he is also the foreground itself. To say it another way, the Strong Man becomes the defining foreground for any story that involves him. And “the cast of thousands” (to speak Hollywood-speak) who follow the Strong Man’s leadership will become merely the background of the story-telling—as we saw also in the wood-carving that pictures the Scandinavian Strong Man Starkaðr in the forefront as he leads the Swedes to battle the Danes. Even the king of the Swedes, marked by his insignia picturing the Three Crowns, is placed behind, not in front of, the pugil Sueticus or ‘fist-fighter of Sweden’, who is in turn marked by insignia picturing the rampant Lion. I have already commented on the relevant symbolism in Essay 5.

§9. Just as the medieval Germanic Strong Man Starkaðr, as a leader of warriors, can be pictured as an idealized athlete—as ‘the fist-fighter of Sweden’—so also the ancient Greek Strong Man Hēraklēs is a model of leadership in athletics, not only in war. He is the perfect athlete who, in demonstrating his athletic perfection, becomes the founder of the ancient Olympics. That said, however, the fact remains: even as a leader of men, Hēraklēs is a loner. He is a model for acting alone, a prototype of a loner in both war and athletics. As a warrior, he ordinarily acts alone as he single-handedly kills enemies, either one-on-one or one-against-many. Likewise as a hunter, he can single-handedly kill beasts with weapons, the same way that humans kill other humans in war, or he can show his athletic side by taking on the role of a Master of Animals who wrestles the beasts to death; alternatively, the Master can “bring them back alive.” And of course our Strong Man can also wrestle to death his human adversaries, like the ogre Antaios, not only beasts like the Nemean Lion. In any case, when all is said and done, Hēraklēs does it all alone—as a rule. And the two exceptions that I have analyzed here can serve to prove the rule, which is this: precisely because this hero acts alone, he can be prototyped as a superhuman who can overcome any and all obstacles to victory.

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From villainous to virtuous: xerxes through the lens of handel’s ombra mai fu, about greek goddesses as mothers or would-be mothers, on the idea of dead poets as imagined by t. s. eliot, compared with ideas about reperformance, part iii.

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Seeing Through the Illusions of the Sports Hero

By William C. Rhoden

Oct. 21, 2012

That wise basketball philosopher Charles Barkley once declared, “I am not a role model.”

A star with the Phoenix Suns at the time, Barkley was lambasted by a large portion of the news media who insisted that high-profile athletes, by virtue of their celebrity, should act like paragons of virtue, even if they weren’t.

Barkley, in his text for a Nike advertisement , was referring to role models, not sports heroes, but the concepts come from the same deep-seated need to make things what they are not. We crave illusion, and athletes have historically been vessels of our self-deception. In light of the dramatic falls of Michael Vick, Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Tiger Woods and now Lance Armstrong, we need to either recalibrate our definition of the sports hero or scrap it altogether. The concept is based largely on ignorance: the less we know about an athlete, the easier it becomes to invest him with lofty ideals. The ideals have little to do with the athlete’s character and everything to do with creating an artificial construct that serves a need.

Sports heroism contains a number of elements.

There is the emotion of heroism.

My father loved Joe Louis and Jesse Owens, and he wasn’t alone. They were icons of an era. After Louis defeated Primo Carnera in 1935, a writer for The Los Angeles Times gushed: “The colored race couldn’t have chosen two more remarkable men than Jesse Owens and Joe Louis to be its outstanding representatives. Owens is being hailed as the greatest track and field athlete of all time, same thing goes for ‘Dead Pan’ Joe Louis, whose decisive defeat of Carnera has sent the scribes scurrying to the dictionaries seeking superlatives of greater scope than any they’ve used before.”

There is the propaganda of heroism.

Louis and Owens — the grandsons of slaves and the sons of sharecroppers — were tools of an American image-making machine designed to show the world, and Nazi Germany in particular, that the United States had it right.

But the heroic reality, based on a myth to begin with, is often grim.

Louis battled drug addiction for years, was forced to fight past his prime and wound up destitute. He appeared on TV game shows at the end of his career, wrestled professionally and spent time in a psychiatric institution.

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Essays About Heroes: 5 Examples And Topic Ideas

Here, we’ll look at examples of essays about heroes and questions that can be used as topics for essays about an imagined or real hero.

A few different images likely come to mind when you hear the word hero. You may imagine Superman flying above the world with his superpower of flight. You may imagine a personal hero, a real person who has made a significant impact on your life for the better. You might think of a true hero as someone who has shown heroic qualities in the public eye, working to help ordinary people through difficult situations.

When writing an essay about your life hero, it’s important to consider the qualities of that person that make them stand out to you. Whether you choose to write an essay about how your mom got you through tough times and became your role model or about a political figure who made a difference in the lives of people in history, it’s key to not just focus on the person’s actions—you’ll also want to focus on the qualities that allowed them to act heroically.

Here, we’ll explore examples of hero essays and potential topics to consider when writing about a hero.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers

Examples Of Essays About Heroes

1. These Are The Heroes Of The Coronavirus Pandemic By Ruth Marcus
2. Why Teachers Are My Heroes By Joshua Muskin
3. Martin Luther King Jr.—Civil Rights Activist & Hero By Kathy Weiser-Alexander

4. Steve Prefontaine: The Track Of A Hero By Bill O’Brian

5. forget hamilton, burr is the real hero by carey wallace, topic ideas for essays about heroes, 1. what makes a hero, 2. what are the most important characteristics of heroes in literature, 3. what constitutes a heroic act, 4. is selflessness required for heroism.

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1. These Are The Heroes Of The Coronavirus Pandemic By Ruth Marcus

Examples of essays about heroes: These Are The Heroes Of The Coronavirus Pandemic By Ruth Marcus

“Is this what they signed up for? There is some danger inherent in the ordinary practice of medicine, but not this much. I confess: I do not know that I would do the same in their circumstances; I am not sure I am so generous or so brave. If my child were graduating from medical school, how would I deal with her being sent, inadequately protected, into an emergency room? If my husband were a physician, would I send him off to the hospital — or let him back into the house in the interim?” Ruth Marcus

Healthcare workers have had no choice but to go above and beyond in recent years. In this essay, Marcus discusses the heroism of those in the healthcare field. He delves into the traits (including selflessness and courage) that make doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers heroes.

2. Why Teachers Are My Heroes By Joshua Muskin

“Teachers are my heroes because they accept this responsibility and try extremely hard to do this well even when the conditions in which they work are far from ideal; at least most do. Our jobs as society, education systems, and parents is to do our best to be strong allies to teachers, since their success is essential to ours.” Joshua Muskin

In this essay, Dr. Muskin discusses the many challenges teachers face and what parents, administrators, and education researchers can do to help teachers support students. Muskin explains that most teachers go above and beyond the call of duty to serve their classrooms.

3. Martin Luther King Jr.—Civil Rights Activist & Hero By Kathy Weiser-Alexander

“During this nonviolent protest, activists used boycotts, sit-ins, and marches to protest segregation and unfair hiring practices that caught the attention of the entire world. However, his tactics were put to the test when police brutality was used against the marchers, and King was arrested. But, his voice was not silenced, as he wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” to refute his critics.” Kathy Weiser-Alexander

In this essay, Weiser-Alexander details both the traits and the actions of Dr. King before and during the civil rights movement. The author touches on King’s commitment to justice, persistence, and willingness to stand for his beliefs despite difficult circumstances.

“I remember this so vividly because Prefontaine was a hero to me, a hero in a way that no one was before, or really has been since. A British commentator once called him “an athletic Beatle.” If so, his persona was much more Lennon than McCartney. Actually, I thought of him more as Mick Jagger — or ultimately James Dean.” Bill O’Brian

A hero to many in the running world, Prefontaine’s confidence, unique style, and unmatched athletic ability have been heralded for decades. In this essay, O’Brian shares how he, as a distance runner during the era of Pre, related to his struggles and ambition.

“Burr fought against an ugly tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in the young republic, led by Hamilton’s Federalist party, which suggested that anyone without English heritage was a second-class citizen, and even challenged the rights of non-Anglos to hold office. In response, Burr insisted that anyone who contributed to society deserved all the rights of any other citizen, no matter their background.” Carey Wallace

In this essay, Wallace explains why Aaron Burr, the lifelong nemesis of founding father Alexander Hamilton, should be considered a historical hero. This essay exposes someone seen as a villain but much of society with a different take on their history.

It can be interesting to think about your definition of a hero. When describing what the term hero means to you, you may want to choose a person (or a few people) you look up to as a hero to solidify your point. You might want to include fictional characters (such as those in the Marvel universe) and real-life brave souls, such as police officers and firefighters.

A word of caution: stay away from the cliche opening of describing how the dictionary defines a hero. Instead, lead-in with a personal story about a hero who has affected your life. While talking about a public figure as a hero is acceptable, you may find it easier to write about someone close to you who you feel has displayed heroic qualities. Writing about a family member or friend who has shown up as a heroic main character in your life can be just as exciting as writing about a real or imagined superhero.

From Beowulf to Marvel comics, heroes in literature take on many different traits. When writing an essay on what trait makes a hero come alive in a short story, novel, or comic, choose a few of your favorite heroes and find common themes that they share.

Perhaps your favorite heroes are selfless and are willing to put themselves last in the name of sacrifice for others. Perhaps they’re able to dig deep into the truth, being honest even when it’s hard, for the greater good. There’s no need to list endless heroes to make your point—choosing three or four heroes from literature can be a great way to support your argument about what characteristics define heroism in literature.

When someone is named a hero in real life, we often picture them saving people from a burning building or performing a difficult surgical operation. It can be difficult to pin down exactly what constitutes a heroic act. When writing about what constitutes a heroic act, think about people who go above and beyond, performing feats of courage, honesty, and bravery to support themselves or others. When writing about what constitutes a heroic act, discuss real-life or literary examples of heroes at work.

To many people, being a hero means giving back to others. While giving something away or trading in one’s well-being for others can certainly be seen as a heroic act, many people wonder if selflessness is required for heroism or if a hero can serve the greater good in a way that also supports their happiness. When writing about whether selflessness is required for heroism, choose examples from literature and real-life to support your point.

Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead.

If you’re still stuck, check out our available resource of essay writing topics .

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You can play unreleased Deadlock heroes in Sandbox with these console commands

If you’re one of the many players eagerly awaiting the next hero drop in Deadlock , you might be excited to hear you can actually play unreleased heroes ahead of time using console commands. This is only available in the Sandbox mode, and they’re not all available yet.

But you can still try them out even if you’re stuck in the T pose. Valve games built on the Source 1 and 2 engines are known for how much players can tweak them using the extensive console and its many commands. To play unreleased Deadlock heroes early, you’ll need to use the “selecthero” command in the console (opened with F7) and then type in the hero you’d like to try out (type in dump_hero_names to see a full list of available heroes). For example, if you want to try the strange Slork, type in “selecthero hero_slork” and give him a whirl in the Sandbox map.

For ease of use, here are all the available unreleased hero names:

hero_gunslinger
hero_yakuza
hero_tokamak
hero_wrecker
hero_rutger
hero_thumper
hero_mirage
hero_cadence
hero_bomber

Not all of these are very far in development and won’t be a pleasant experience (they’re stuck T posing and have no animations or temporary effects), but they’re still available for you to try out and see what they’ll be about once they’re out. Some are actually quite fleshed out, especially Astro, Nano, Wrecker, and Mirage (he has portrait and fleshed-out skills but appears as an ERROR temp model in our testing).

Valve is constantly working on developing new heroes, adding them to Deadlock , and reworking existing ones to make them more appropriate. Recently, one of the game’s lead devs confirmed reworks would be coming to most heroes at least to some degree, so the game’s roster, especially the unreleased ones, might look quite different when the game comes out.

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A Classical & Christ-Centered Education

Logos School is a regular member of the Idaho High School Activities Association (IHSAA). For information regarding the athletic opportunities available to the junior and senior high school student, see the menu in the left sidebar.

Within our membership in the IHSAA, we are members of the White Pine League (Region 2: 1A Division 2). Click here for up-to-date information on league standings, game results, and seeding for tournaments.

The Mascots

Meet “the phryges”, the olympic and paralympic mascots, first ambassadors for the games.

Paris 2024 presents the Phryges! These little Phrygian caps are the mascots of Paris 2024. Discover the history of this tribe of colourful red characters based on the famous Phrygian cap - a symbol of freedom. The Phrygians have stood shoulder to shoulder with the French people throughout all the key moments in the nation’s history; today, they are convinced that sport can change everything! With the Phryges, let’s drive a revolution through sport!

Revolution through sport

Our mascots want to play a role in the lives of French people and help bring more sport into our everyday lives. And what could be better than little Phrygian caps to lead this revolution through sport with Paris 2024?

Who are the Phryges?

The phrygian cap.

The Phryges are based on an item of clothing that is a symbol of freedom and has been a part of French history for centuries, dating back to ancient times. After featuring on certain flags in Latin America before becoming widely popularised by French revolutionaries, the Phrygian cap has now become a familiar image in France. A symbol of revolution, the French Republic and freedom, the Phrygian cap can be seen on French national icon Marianne, depicted in busts at town halls across the country and on stamps, and is also covered in the national curriculum in schools.

The Phrygian tribe

The Phryges follow a long lineage, as the Phrygian cap was part of all the major events in French history. The French National Archives show records of Phrygian caps worn during the construction of Paris’ Notre-Dame cathedral in 1163, during the Revolution of 1789, during work to build the Eiffel Tower, and during the Paris 1924 Olympic Games.

Our two heroes

The olympic phryge.

Always thoughtful and an astute strategist, she embarks on adventures only after carefully weighing up all the pros and cons. Just like the Olympic athletes, she knows the importance of measuring all the various parameters to achieve her goals. With her sharp mind, she is modest and prefers to hide her emotions. The Olympic Phryge will lead the movement of all those who take part in sport, and believe us, she will give her all to get France moving!

The Paralympic Phryge

Did you recognise the running prosthetic she proudly wears, enabling her to run at lighting speed? Her passion is to blaze a trail; some might say she is fearless, which might be true, but one thing is certain: she hates being bored and loves to try new things. No matter the sport, and regardless of whether she competes as part of a team or on her own, she is always game to play. With her, you will get moving, playing, dancing, and sweating! With her mindset of being the perfect supporter, she loves promoting the values of sport, celebrating athletes in all arenas and all the Games venues, and partying to celebrate victories or get over defeats.

Their mission

Inspiring france to get moving.

With millennia of experience, the Phryges know that any revolution needs preparation. Our two heroes have spent the last two years working to get France and its people active! Hosting the Games is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so don’t miss out on the celebrations!

Heading up this movement, the Olympic Phryge and Paralympic Phryge have one message: sport can change everything! Our lives, our health, our relationships with others, how we relate to nature - it is time to welcome more sport into our lives!

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Livingstone the hero as England beat Australia to level T20 series

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Second T20 International - England v Australia

Livingstone hit 87 from 47 balls
Top scorer caught with one run required
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Series level 1-1 with decider in Manchester on Sunday

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U.S. surge to huge 6-2 lead over Europe at Solheim Cup

A U.S. team eager to end a seven-year Solheim Cup title drought enjoyed a dream start on the opening day on Friday in Virginia, taking a 6-2 lead over Europe behind the sensational play of Nelly Korda, Megan Khang, Rose Zhang and others.

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COMMENTS

Athletes as heroes and role models: an ancient model
14. According to Nagy (Citation 2013, 8b§3), to endure such suffering, as an athlete, is to re-enact a prototypical ordeal of a hero.A more accurate way of understanding athletic contests in their archaic Greek historical contexts is to keep in mind the meanings of the ancient Greek words athlos (epic aethlos) 'ordeal, contest' and athlon (epic aethlon) 'prize won in the course of ...
Sports Heroes
But research reveals that especially powerful and iconic heroes are perceived to possess at least a few of the following characteristics: (1) They have an exceptional talent; (2) They have a strong moral compass; (3) They incur significant risk; and (4) They make the ultimate sacrifice while helping others.
Opinion: Jackie Robinson was a true sports hero : NPR
Opinion: Jackie Robinson was a true sports hero Seventy-five years ago Friday, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Scott Simon wrote this essay in 2019 for what would ...
Athletes Are Role Models, But What Do They Teach Us?
Jack Dorfman. Feb 28, 2021. "Athletes are role models… [but] what do they teach us?". That's the question that former Black Panther member and politically active prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal left readers with in his interview with activist sports writer Dave Zirin back in 2007 for Zirin's book, "Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain ...
On sporting heroes: Sport in Society: Vol 12 , No 1
23 Blackman, 'Tennis', 96. McEnroe was included in the 250 most famous people of the twentieth century for a BBC documentary series in the early 1990s on the basis of his 'bad behaviour' rather than his tennis playing ability. James, Fame in the Twentieth Century, 7. 24 Adams, On Being John McEnroe.
Athletes as heroes and role models: an ancient model
A common argument for the social value of sport is that athletes serve as heroes who inspire people - especially young people - to strive for excellence. This argument has been questioned by sport philosophers at a variety of levels. On the one hand, there are questions about whether athletes deserve such a role (i.e. Hyland 1990, 26-29).
Athletes of influence? The role model refrain in sport
Taking a more positive view, it is a common refrain that athletes are role models for, or even in, a wider community. However, this taken-for-granted assumption has not been accompanied by ...
(PDF) The Sports Hero in the Social Imaginary. Identity, Community
Abstract. This paper aims to introduce the sociological processes and mechanisms defining the social imaginary of sports hero, who is a sportsperson acquiring a special status by virtues of his ...
Baseball Heroes, the National Pastime, and American Culture
This essay explores the evolution of the American baseball hero as the models of manhood and masculinity, cast by sports journalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ... However, era cultural commentators increasingly insisted that sports heroes, such as Cobb and Ruth, might be better understood as pseudo-heroes, part of an emerging ...
Athletes as heroes and role models: an ancient model
In this essay, I construct an argument for the social and educational value of sport built upon the relationship between athletes, heroes, and the song culture that celebrated them in ancient Greece. On this model, athletes are neither heroes nor role models in the conventional sense. Rather, athletes, athletics, and the poets who extolled them ...
Ancient Greek heroes, athletes, poetry Part I: Twelve Olympian Essays
In Essay 6, we have seen that Hēraklēs, as an athlete, demonstrates his role as a culture hero of civilization. His very first Labor, the killing of the Nemean Lion, is a shining example, since the choke-hold that Hēraklēs applies to the beast in killing it exemplifies his athleticism as a champion of an athletic event known as the pankration.
Sports Heroes
Sports Heroes. Americans look to their sporting heroes to be models of courage, discipline, strong character, and success; those perceived to be breaking the rules of the game are stereotyped as villains. In the last third of the century, the media has demanded that the hero's off-field conduct matters nearly as much as the onfield performance.
Seeing Through the Illusions of the Sports Hero
We crave illusion, and athletes have historically been vessels of our self-deception. In light of the dramatic falls of Michael Vick, Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Tiger Woods and now ...
The Sports Heroes Free Essay Example
Essay, Pages 6 (1337 words) Views. 559. Many people look for their sports heroes to demonstrate courage, strong character, discipline, and success. Sport heroes can be people, as well as animals. Two famous sports heroes are Shoeless Joe one of the greatest professional baseball players ever. The other one is Seabiscuit, a famous racehorse.
Yes, We Can: India's Unsung Sports Heroes
Got to remember all the baggage of doubt that athletes had to carry. Got to remember all those who tried, who didn't know better, who got intimidated but who fought, who had no history to wear as armour, who lived in an India before Google, when 400m training schedules couldn't just be downloaded from the Internet and so Milkha Singh had to go and meet Charles Jenkins, the best 400m runner in ...
Sport, Heroes, and Celebrities
Barry Smart is a research professor of sociology at the University of Portsmouth. He is the author of 10 books, including The Sport Star: Modern Sport and the Cultural Economy of Sporting Celebrity (2005) and Consumer Society: Critical Issues and Environmental Consequences (2010), nine edited volumes and reference works, and over 100 journal articles and book chapters.
Playing Sports: The Importance: [Essay Example], 657 words
Playing Sports: The Importance. Sports have always played a significant role in human society, from ancient civilizations to the modern world. The benefits of participating in sports go beyond physical health and fitness. Engaging in sports activities provides individuals with numerous mental, emotional, and social advantages.
Essays About Heroes: 5 Examples And Topic Ideas
A hero to many in the running world, Prefontaine's confidence, unique style, and unmatched athletic ability have been heralded for decades. In this essay, O'Brian shares how he, as a distance runner during the era of Pre, related to his struggles and ambition. 5. Forget Hamilton, Burr Is The Real Hero By Carey Wallace.
You can play unreleased Deadlock heroes in Sandbox with these console
For example, if you want to try the strange Slork, type in "selecthero hero_slork" and give him a whirl in the Sandbox map. Valve is constantly working on adding new heroes to Deadlock as the ...
Athletics
Logos School is a regular member of the Idaho High School Activities Association (IHSAA). For information regarding the athletic opportunities available to the junior and senior high school student, see the menu in the left sidebar. Within our membership in the IHSAA, we are members of the White Pine League (Region 2: 1A Division 2).
Vnukovo International Airport Map
Vnukovo, formally Vnukovo Andrei Tupolev International Airport, is a dual-runway international airport located in Vnukovo District, 28 km southwest of the centre of Moscow, Russia.
Paris 2024
Our two heroes have spent the last two years working to get France and its people active! Hosting the Games is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so don't miss out on the celebrations! Heading up this movement, the Olympic Phryge and Paralympic Phryge have one message: sport can change everything!
The Center for ETHICS*
CENTER FOR ETHICS* University of Idaho Center for ETHICS 500 Memorial Gym Moscow, ID 83844-3080 Phone: (208) 885-2103 Fax: (208) 885-2108 Email: [email protected]
Vnukovo Map
Vnukovo. Vnukovo District is an administrative district of Western Administrative Okrug, and one of the 125 raions of Moscow, Russia. Most of the district is occupied by Vnukovo International Airport, a small adjacent residential area, and a separate residential micro-district. Photo: Ssr, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ukraine is facing shortages in its brave ...
Livingstone the hero as England beat Australia to level T20 series
Liam Livingstone smashed a magnificent 87 from 47 balls as England beat Australia by three wickets to level their three match T20 series 1-1 at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens on Friday.