Pushed to the limit

Burn out is one of those phrases in sport that divides opinion. Many people believe that sportsmen and women are very well paid for what they do and that tiredness shouldn’t be an issue. However there is a growing minority of people who are becoming more sympathetic to the stresses and strains placed on an athlete’s body in modern day sport.
Andrew Flintoff is one such example of a sportsman who has seen his career cut short and curtailed by injury. Though he still plans to make a comeback in the one day form of the game there are many who feel that he may never play at the top level of sport again.
However one interesting example that I came across while looking more into this was that of Australian Moto GP rider Casey Stoner. In the middle of the 2009 season whilst chasing Valentino Rossi for another title Stoner announced that he was set to take a mid season break in order to recover from a mystery illness.
There was much speculation about what was afflicting Stoner but the general consensus was that he was suffering from burnout. He is renowned in the Moto GP world for being one of the fittest competitors on the track and it was believed that he had simply overdone it in his quest to be as physically fit as possible.
He had complained of feeling nauseous and exhausted during races and was eventually diagnosed with mild anaemia and gastritis.
Despite finally finding out what had been making him so unwell the question still remained as to what could cause a 24 year old to endure such problems and the answer comes again back to overtraining. The reason for this was pressure to succeed. In a sport that has been dominated by the quite brilliant Valentino Rossi for years, it is crying out for someone to come and mount a serious long term challenge at the top of the sport and for many that man is Casey Stoner. But it seemed that he has overdone it in his quest for success, and he won’t be the last sportsman to do so.