Elite Competitiveness vs. Mass Fitness

Elite competitiveness and mass fitness are two reasons to motivate the country to get in physical shape. Elite competitiveness would be the idea that the country needs to get in shape so that we can compete and win in world class events of all sorts. Mass fitness is the idea that we need to get in shape simply because it is healthy and it would make our country look much better for us to be healthy. Obviously it is in the best interest of the country to be more healthy and highly regarded around the world, but the question is, which mentality would work better in improving the nations health?
In the idea of elite competitiveness, if the best of America go out around the world and compete and win, that would set a great example for the rest of the Americans. These winners would become idols and the physical shape they are in would motivate others to join them and work hard to gain similar physical shape. These days, kids in America tend to pick a favorite celebrity to base their childhood off of. Some kids pick athletes, some kids pick rock starts, and there are some kids who pick artists. However, imagine if the majority of children in America were basing their childhood life style on one of the top athletic competitors in the world. These kids would be driven to be in just as good of shape as these athletes and this would improve our physical health as a nation.
On the other hand, the idea of mass fitness would work well too. This would be more based on the government implementing some kind of required program for everyone in the country to participate in and get in better shape. Once people start doing the program, then naturally people will become competitive with each other and try to get in better shape then their peers. So instead of a world known athlete motivating people to exercise, everyone's peers would be motivating people to exercise. This could also potentially be very successful.
Regardless of the method plan, getting everyone in the whole country into shape is a very difficult thing to do. Hints the fact that it is a high priority and it is far from getting done in the country.

Jesse Owen

The story of Jesse Owens is quite intriguing. The way he dominated everyone during the Berlin Olympics had to have caught the eye of most people in the world. In an Olympics supposed to be dominated by Germans, Owens won numerous gold medals in numerous events, including the 100m dash, 220m hurdles, and long jump, among others. He wiped out all of his competition to the point where most of his races were not even close. Everyone seemed to be extremely impressed, including most of the German's themselves. A person would think that after such a dominant performance, Owens would come back to America and be a nationally known celebrity. Everyone would want to meet him, companies would want him to star in their commercials and he would be featured everywhere. However, this was not the case. When Jesse Owens returned to the US, he was basically disregarded. No endorsement offers, no invitations from famous people to hang out, and very little publicity from outside of the African American population. When I first heard this, I was shocked. Put Jesse Owens in this day and age and he would be the face of the country after such a dominant performance. Look at Michael Phelps today. He dominates the world in swimming and becomes a iconic legend in America. He is on the front cover of magazines, asked to be the guest on countless TV shows, and even gets caught breaking the law but does not seem to get his image hurt. But back then things were different. Blacks did not have nearly the amount of respect that whites had and even a stint like dominating in the Berlin Olympics wasn't going to fix that. Owens ended up speaking about success and becoming a role model to the black society, but never really gained stature amount the whites. It is amazing to see how the times have changed, and purely unfortunate that the time of Jesse Owen's prime had to at such a time like it was.