Either I am not sporty or out of their radar. My drinking has gone down a lot since I started running. I know there are other reasons for it but the main one is I can not run on a hangover.
So what do you think?
Are we drinking more?
Sporty people likely to drink more alcohol, survey finds
I suspect (haven't followed up to read the actual paper) that this is more of an issue in team sports a) because, particularly in the UK and perhaps particularly amongst men, we're a bit rubbish at bonding without lubricant and b) because of coach travel to events.
Moot point as to whether running is a sport - you can be in a running club, you can compete... or not at all.
It wouldn't surprise me to be honest. Football players seem to be around booze the whole time, which at a professional level irks me no end, as there's so much negativity surrounding it. As an athlete and professional competitor I can't think why you'd not want to perform at your absolute best, otherwise why all the time-consuming expensive training. I'd be surprised if the pro tennis players and athletes are drinking at all, never mind to excess. I can't imagine Murry, Jokovic and Mo knocking it back somehow
I have stopped drinking completely! Did so some while back
The survey was conducted on people who regularly exercise, rather than on athletes/sport people. I have a friend who is part of a running club and they have a lot of nights out together socialising, whereas me, the lone runner drinks at lot less on average than she does. I was just wondering if you are part of a running club If the social aspect is drinks related like the article suggests or if as usual it's a case of bash the people who are looking after themselves in the press. . 😀.
They don't give enough details about the study - who were the people they took into account - how old were they, what were their socio-economic backgrounds, what sports did they play? Who is the survey for? (Maybe Alcohol Concern, who are running a conference in Wales on social drinking in sports, entitled "Hitting the bar: How can we promote healthy drinking in sporting settings?"). Incidentally, the survey concerns Wales, and I found another "survey" from 2016 stating that Wales was "the binge-drinking capital of the UK", with one in seven adults regularly going overboard according to the survey. Which in itself could partly explain the findings.
I find the scientific article discussing the 17 studies more informative - including this little piece: "Indeed, Wichstrom and Wichstrom (2009) found differences in alcohol use based on the type of sports individuals participate in; that is, team sport participants had greater increases in alcohol use compared to individual-based sport participants. Furthermore, it appears that participants in technical sports are also at greater risk for alcohol use compared to athletes in endurance sports. Technical sports were defined as sport activities that were neither a power sport (e.g., lifting, wrestling) nor an endurance sport (e.g., running, cycling)."
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