She won a medal which puts her at the top 1% but most athletes who go to Olympics or international championships don't win any medals but nevertheless have to through the same training and invest the same commitment. If she can't make it, it makes you wonder what happens to the rest who also saw their golden years pass by but without any medals or achievements to show off.
Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
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Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#72Great story. I kind of agree with many others here that it sounds like a mental health issue. But I also think that the story is more complicated than that. We shouldn't neglect the impact on the brain a professional sports career has. I've seen it many times. The amount of sacrifice and energy put into something like this leads to a very unbalanced lifestyle, which is usually encouraged from all sides (parents, coac…
I wonder could endorphins play their role. Production of endorphins are triggered by pain in the muscles when excercising, and athlete becomes accustomed to it and (as I heard) even addicted to a physical activity. When athlete stops her sports career, physical activity levels suddenly drops, so no more cheap endorphins. At the same time she face a problem of resocialization into "normal" lifestyle. Patterns in her mind know the only way to be happy, to work hard, to excercise and to win. I suppose it can be hard, very hard. Especially a first year after retirement.
But Twigg's case seems more complicated for me than that. Her lifestyle suspiciously in harmony with her mother kicked her out of home when she was just 16.
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lazy people of course deserve housing too.
The whole idea that somebody could be so lazy as to become homeless, without any other issues, is somewhat absurd. Being homeless is terribly uncomfortable. A truly lazy person would find it unbeatable.
A lot of people who appear lazy are just paralyzed by other things. If it wasn't for living at home, my son would probably wind up homeless just for a lack of coping skills. And he wouldn't be able to get out of it, because of a lack of coping skills. That's just how he's wired.
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was nothing to suggest this woman doesn’t care about being homeless. This thread is wild, from people calling this woman mentally ill, to lazy, to simply not caring about being homeless. It’s certainly more a reflection on the people making these comments and our society than any reflection on her.
Strong disagree. All those explanations are plausible. Without pathologizing her, this is still true by her own admission: She is treatment resistant and homeless by choice
>She is treatment resistant and homeless by choice
I think it’s significantly more complex. It would appear she became homeless through financial/employment issues but elects to not accept what she sees as special treatment which would secure her housing. It reminds me of John McCain electing to stay a Prisoner of War despite being given the opportunity to be returned because of his status as the son of an admiral. Yet It’s odd to say McCain was a POW by choice, he wanted his presence/story to bring to light the story of all POWs, he wanted to be treated the same, just as this woman clearly wants light shed on all homeless not just special treatment/help/housing because her status.
She suffered from homelessness as a child and yet began college at 14, became a world champion/Olympian, even appears to have returned to school successfully after she stopped competing. I mean come on with an experience like that people are here calling her lazy and mentally ill? No doubt mental health issues will follow any homeless child for life, but the track record is clear the woman isn’t lazy and certainly capable, To return to homelessness in her 50’s is tragic, and I’ll double down and say for society to blame her because she is being offered charity and she refuses to accept on principal and then calling her situation a choice is a double tragedy and again more a reflection on society than her.
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#75Great story. I kind of agree with many others here that it sounds like a mental health issue. But I also think that the story is more complicated than that. We shouldn't neglect the impact on the brain a professional sports career has. I've seen it many times. The amount of sacrifice and energy put into something like this leads to a very unbalanced lifestyle, which is usually encouraged from all sides (parents, coac…
> We shouldn't neglect the impact on the brain a professional sports career has. I think this is true in the abstract, but in this particular story, there's a lot more going on. She was a homeless teenager when she was discovered as a rider, and the article strongly implies that the only stable life she's ever known is racing. This isn't a Ryan Leaf-type story, where a talented athlete was pushed too hard by their pa…
You're right, there is a lot more going on. The point I was trying to make is that this happens even for athletes coming from a "healthy" environment, and that the way her story unfolded after her career is not all that surprising to me.
Personally I wish that there was more guidance and help available for retired athletes, but on the other hand I also realize most athletes on this level are too stubborn to get that help anyway..
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#76She sounds like a great person and I hope things work out for her. It's hard to find the right context for her without painting her in a bad light. Some people are eager to call her (or people like her) lazy, conveniently ignoring the fact that nobody really wants to live this way. Society as it is designed now doesn't know what to do with people like her, so they're either ignored or just given shelters and... That'…
Can you point to a solution besides giving them shelter and just sort of tolerating it? I mean, there’s different mechanisms for shelter — family, public housing, NGOs, etc, and we can talk about how to tweak those knobs as a culture — but I can’t think of what else cultures have done, besides various levels of housing people who just want to float.
What about some sort of credit people could claim for housing a transient? Even if it's family, it takes a toll and relieves strain on the system.
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#77She sounds like a great person and I hope things work out for her. It's hard to find the right context for her without painting her in a bad light. Some people are eager to call her (or people like her) lazy, conveniently ignoring the fact that nobody really wants to live this way. Society as it is designed now doesn't know what to do with people like her, so they're either ignored or just given shelters and... That'…
From reading the story, it sounds a lot like a mental health issue. - Started at UW at age 14 while competing. - Had a programming job, quit to go back to cycling. - She had a job, disappeared for 4 days, only to return, freak out and quit in fear of being fired. - Had a support job, got fired, returned to Seattle and didn't even bother applying for another job. - Won't accept help from people who found out about her…
That last bit really got to me too. It seems like a lot of pride and guilt are mixed in with whatever else might be going on. Yes, 12,000 people there, half a million in the country, but someone is trying to help her. So if she would let them, they could then help someone else. And then maybe she could double the effort by helping out others herself.
That all seems so easy sitting here in my air conditioned office and not having experienced anything in her life. I'm sure it's far more complicated than that.
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#78> Twigg got an associate degree in computer science and became a programmer for a seaweed-products company in San Diego.
She must be more experienced than most bootcamp grads. There must be jobs she can do in Seattle.
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#79Great story. I kind of agree with many others here that it sounds like a mental health issue. But I also think that the story is more complicated than that. We shouldn't neglect the impact on the brain a professional sports career has. I've seen it many times. The amount of sacrifice and energy put into something like this leads to a very unbalanced lifestyle, which is usually encouraged from all sides (parents, coac…
Yes. I was a competitive athlete for years and filling that void after leaving the sport was very difficult. To be honest I dumped a lot of that energy into my work but I've realized over the last few years that I need something equally satisfying at home that has some type of competitive aspect to it. Otherwise I get very bored very quickly at home and will spent way too many hours in the office.
Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle
#80Homelessness is the tip of the housing iceberg. Right behind the homeless are those who are a paycheck, or emergency, from losing everything. Behind them are millions of paying out there earnings in high rent, forced to share apartments to live where the job pays. Fronting it all are upper-middle class people, foreign investors, and venture capital, buying up properties to rent out. The cause is not a lack of "afford…
"What's not affordable is spending most of your income on rent, and this is hardly a choice for most people right now." Not a choice? Don't you enter into a rental agreement via choice? I've never met anyone who's said they were forced to rent some place. I don't necessarily disagree with the housing shortage, but there's reasons for that. Look at state, local laws and nimby's that pass and influence local zoning res…
I wish people didn't trivialize the struggle with moving from a metropolitan area, as if leaving everything and everyone close to you is a simple, rational, mathematical decision to save a few hundred a month on rent.