On the eve of the 1986 Super Bowl against the New England Patriots, Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka reportedly told his team, ”You can only play this game once. If wives and girlfriends can’t wait, tell them to take a cold shower.”
Ditka’s players must have listened, because the Bears slaughtered the Patriots 46-10 the next day; it’s just too bad that nobody gave Team USA the same speech before this year’s Olympic Games.
Less than a week after the start of the London Olympics, the United States has been nearly even with China in terms of total medal count, but is falling far behind on those gold medals. And this is a serious problem because, let’s face it, first place is the only place.
From the thousands of condoms emblazoned with the Olympic rings that are shipped to the athletes’ dwellings, to women’s soccer leader Hope Solo’s admission that the Games are basically just one big, toned orgy, it’s easy to assume that Team USA’s head is buried in the bosom of a fellow athlete rather than focused on the competition.
Could it be that all of the between-the-sheets action between young athletes in pique physical form is gumming up the motors? Possibly.
It’s a centuries-old myth that athletes perform better if they abstain from sex days — and in some cases months — before a game or match.
Plato wrote in “Laws” that the great Olympian Ikkos of Tarentum, who competed in the pentathlon around 444 B.C., was not to engage in sexual activity with a woman (or a boy, for that matter — you know how the Greeks were back then) and to only eat wild boar.
“You cannot receive a female guest. It’s absolutely out of the question,” a Ghana spokesperson told the Daily Beast at the time.
The pseudoscience behind the no-sex decree stems from the fact that coaches believe that withholding sex makes male players more aggressive on the field. However, studies have shown that sexual activity actually increases testosterone, which could potentially make an athlete more aggressive.
Other coaches believe that sex the night before a game would make players tired and lacking in energy the next day, while others think that if players are concerned with nighttime activities, it might make them less focused on the field or the court the following day.
There is no real scientific proof one way or the other that abstaining from sex contributes to a win on the field. But can Plato, Ditka and Ali all be wrong?
After all, as Solo tells it, casual sex runs rampant in Olympic Village — those 70,000 or so condoms aren’t just for souvenirs.
“With a once-in-a-lifetime experience, you want to build memories, whether it’s sexual, partying or on the field,” Solo said. “I’ve seen people having sex right out in the open. On the grass, between buildings, people are getting down and dirty.”
Sure, we’re happy that the athletes are making memories at the Olympics, but checking things off their sexual checklists doesn’t really benefit us back at home. You know whatdoes benefit us back home? Gold medals.
Lock it up, Team USA. We can’t let China take our jobs or our gold medals.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/31/is-team-usa-having-too-much-sex-in-london/
Sex and Sports: Should Athletes Abstain Before Big Events?
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
for National Geographic News
February 22, 2006
The Winter Olympics may offer plenty of excitement, but there's at least one type of action that many of the athletes are strictly avoiding: sex.
Athletes have long perpetuated the theory that sex before competition zaps energy. Muhammad Ali, for one, reportedly wouldn't make love for six weeks before a fight.
But scientists say there is no physiological evidence to suggest that sex before competition is bad. In fact, some studies suggest that pre-sports sex may actually aid athletes by raising their testosterone levels, for example.
It is unclear, however, what psychological effects sex may have on an athlete's performance. Some scientists suggest that abstinence could help some athletes concentrate better.
"There are two possible ways sex before competition could affect performance," said Ian Shrier, a sports medicine specialist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
"First, it could make you tired and weak the next day," Shrier said. "This has been disproved.
"The second way is that it could affect your psychological state of mind. This has not been tested," he said.
Power Sports
In 2000 Shrier published an editorial titled "Does Sex the Night Before Competition Decrease Performance?" in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine. He wrote that the "long-standing myth that athletes should practice abstinence before important competitions may stem from the theory that sexual frustration leads to increased aggression."
The abstinence tradition is particularly strong in power sports, such as boxing and football, in which aggression is considered a valuable trait.
Some people believe the act of ejaculation draws testosterone, the hormone of both sexual desire and aggression, from the body.
"This is a really wrong idea," said Emmanuele A. Jannini of the University of L'Aquila in Italy. Jannini is a professor of endocrinology, the study of bodily secretions, and has studied effects of sex on athletic performance.
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