杰出的奥运选手能否在现实世界取得成功？

随着2016年夏季奥运会落下帷幕，我们很难不去关注许多运动员接下来的生活。很多奖牌获得者都做出了退役的公开声明。不太成功的选手没有什么选择的余地，只能继续追求其他生活。而不管是赢是输，即便是那些商业价值巨大的运动，也很少有奥运选手能够长期依靠这项运动生活下去。

这些杰出的选手能否像在运动场一样，在现代的经济社会中取得同样的成功呢？

如果你认同“坚毅至上”的观点，即人生成功与否，与毅力、坚韧和自制力的关系更大，而与先天的才华与智力关系较小，那么你会给出肯定的答案。确实，这些在奥运会转播期间时刻展示的幕后情景，无不在推销这样一种观念：那些取得优胜的运动员总是会训练得更久，更努力，他们更专注于让自己变得更好，从而突破自己的极限。

如果真的如此，那么运动员借以赢得赛跑、球赛和对抗的品质，将会帮助他们在职场的激烈竞争中同样胜出。不过这一设想是否有事实的佐证呢？

这一问题已经得到了研究——答案，暂时是肯定的。

首先，许多研究报告都发现，青少年时期练习体育运动的人更容易在之后的生活中展现出领导力、自信心、协作精神和奉献精神，这些都是当今经济社会宝贵的特质。

例如在2015年，期刊《领导力和组织研究》（Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies）上发表了一篇研究报告《工作与运动》（Sports at Work）。报告针对高中毕业后参军的男性，分析了至少55年的纵向数据，并得出结论，那些曾在高中参加体育运动的选手明显表现出了比非运动员更强的自信心、自尊心、领导力和利他行为。高中的运动选手还更可能奉献自己的时间、向慈善组织捐赠，并有更大的概率在高管层谋得一席之地。

安永（Ernst & Young）和ESPNw委托彼得森研究所（Peterson Institute）在2015年发布的一份政策简报中指出：“做过运动员的人，其年薪要比非运动员高出7%。”

康奈尔大学（Cornell University）研究员、《工作与运动》第一作者凯文·克里芬在一份电子邮件中写道：“对父母而言，这份研究支持了他们投入时间和精力让孩子参加青少年运动。”

对女孩而言，尤其应当如此。贝齐·史蒂文森是前美国劳工部（U.S. Department of Labor）首席经济学家，也是密歇根大学（University of Michigan）公共政策领域的教授。他在一篇报告里比较了《教育法第九篇修正案》（Title IX，这条法律禁止在联邦政府资助的教育项目和活动中出现性别歧视）出台前后的情况，文中指出，相比非运动员女性，曾在高中担任过运动员的女性收入会更高。

史蒂文森的研究中，有一点值得称道，它不仅证明了运动成功和生涯成功的联系，还体现了一定程度的因果关系。毕竟，参加运动可能有助于提升宝贵的生活技能，但也可能只是这些技能（例如自信、领导力）有助于提高运动和生活两方面的表现而已。但20世纪70年代《教育法第九篇修正案》的突然出台——它禁止在联邦政府出资赞助的教育机构中存在性别歧视，极大提高了女生对校园运动的参与度——让史蒂文森证明了情况属于前者。某种程度上说，参与运动确实会让人生更加成功。

女性收入提高的原因是什么？史蒂文森发现，参加运动能让女性更有机会进入习惯由男性主导的高级技能岗位，这些岗位通常有更高的工资。史蒂文森写道：“参加运动（而且在所有课外活动中只有参加运动）能与更高的收入挂钩，这意味着运动与某种能力有着密切关系，这种能力不仅是收入的决定因素，而且也无法通过其他可以观察到的变量进行测量。”

其他研究人员试图梳理出更进一步的解释。安永和ESPNw的报告中引用了《信心密码》（The Confidence Code）一书的共同作者凯蒂·肯的观点，指出了通过运动逐渐获得的情绪复原能力带来的益处：“参与竞技体育不仅会带来胜利的体验，还会带来失败的经历。失败的重要性几乎和成功一样。当你参加运动，表现糟糕的时候，你别无选择，只能自己爬起来继续。这个过程能够让你建立信心。对于商业和领导力而言，这是个极其有用的检验场。”

文·麦卡弗里在大学里曾是棒球运动员，他创立了Game Plan，帮助运动员在退役后寻找工作。他同意这种看法：“（女性运动员）习惯于在男性主导的环境中工作。她们不会害羞，知道如何晋升，她们十分倔强。运动员实际上拥有可迁移技能，他们有团队合作的能力，管理时间的能力，以及履行承诺的能力。”

康奈尔大学的克里芬表示，精英运动员——例如代表大学或是参与国际比赛的那些人——是否会比最多代表高中参赛或是参加少儿比赛的运动员在职场表现更好，这一点目前尚未得到充分研究。

讽刺的是，实际上，我们有理由认为一些精英运动员会在职场处于劣势。想要成为奥运会选手的运动员，很难在保持必要专注进行训练的同时进行全职工作，更不用说在竞争激烈的领域打好职业生涯的基础。实际上，许多人倾向于寻找兼职或是多份零工来维持生活，同时继续参加比赛。

因此，他们在奥运会后的职业前景不一定光明。俄勒冈大学（University of Oregon）华沙体育营销中心（Warsaw Sports Marketing Center）的克莱格·利昂在接受WIRED采访时表示：“奥运选手决定退役时，已经年近三十或三十出头了，他们准备好了进入职场，但他们往往没有任何工作经验。”

也就是说，大部分年轻运动员会在运动生涯开始影响职业生涯之前就挂靴退役。做出这样的决定，也可以他们和父母得到安慰：他们在运动场上（和拼车）的时间并没有浪费。克里芬表示：“下一次当父母感觉带孩子往返参加训练压力很大时”，他们应该记住，“研究证实，让孩子参加运动从长期来看是有益的”。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

As the 2016 Summer Olympics wind down, it’s hard not to wonder what’s next for many of the athletes. Numerous medalists have spoken openly of retirement. Less successful competitors will have little choice but to move on to other pursuits. And win or lose, it’s the rare Olympian—even among those competing in commercially viable sports—who can hope to make a living playing their game over the long-term.

Are these extraordinary competitors likely to fare as well in the modern economy as they did on the athletic field?

You’d certainly think so if you buy into the notion of “grit”—the idea that success in life has more to do with qualities like perseverance, stick-to-it-iveness, and self-control than with innate ones like talent and intelligence. Indeed, those ubiquitous behind-the-scenes vignettes sprinkled throughout the television coverage of the Olympics relentlessly sell the idea that winning athletes gain their edge by training a little longer, working a little harder, and dedicating themselves to greatness a little more single-mindedly.

If that’s the case, is stands to reason that many of the same qualities that enable athletes to win races, games, and meets would help them succeed at the proverbial rat race as well. But is the mythology borne out by the facts?

The question has been studied—and the answer is a tentative yes.

To start with, multiple reports have found that people who played sports in their youth are more likely than those who did not to exhibit leadership, confidence, collaboration, and dedication later in life—all valuable traits in today’s economy.

For example, a study called “Sports at Work,” published in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies in 2015, analyzed longitudinal data on men who had served in the military and been out of high school for at least 55 years. It concluded, among other things, that those who participated in high school sports demonstrate significantly higher levels of self-confidence, self-respect, leadership, and prosocial behavior, when compared to non-athletes. The high school athletes were also more likely to volunteer time, donate to charitable organizations, and have jobs in upper management.

And a Peterson Institute policy brief commissioned by Ernst & Young and ESPNw for a 2015 report found that “the annual wages of former athletes are on average about 7% higher than those of non-athletes.”

Says Kevin Kniffin, a Cornell University researcher and the lead author of “Sports at Work,” wrote in an email: “For parents, the research supports the investments of time and energy in their kids participating in youth sports.”

That may be especially true for girls. Women who were athletes in high school tend to earn more money than non-athletes, according to a report by Betsey Stevenson, a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, that compared outcomes before and after the introduction of Title IX, the federal law that bans gender discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities.

One notable facet of Stevenson’s research is that it proved not just a correlation between athletic success and life success, but a degree of causation. It’s possible that playing sports actually helps develop valuable life skills, after all, but it also may be the case that those same skills (self-confidence, leadership, etc.) simply happen to boost performance in both spheres. But the sudden introduction in the 1970s of Title IX—which banned gender discrimination in federally-funded educational institutions and dramatically increased the participation of women in school sports—enabled Stevenson to establish the former. To some extent, playing sports actually does tend to lead to greater life success.

The reason for the wage boost among women? Stevenson found that participation in sports increased the chance that a women would enter traditionally male-dominated, high-skilled occupations that typically have higher wages. “The fact that athletic participation (and only athletic participation among all extra-curricular activities) is associated with higher wages suggests that sports have an especially strong correlation with a type of ability that is both an important determinant of wages and is not measured by other observable variables,” Stevenson writes.

Other researchers have tried to tease out further explanations. The E&Y/ESPNw report quotes Katty Kay, co-author of The Confidence Code,pointing to the benefits of the emotional resilience built up through athletics: “Playing competitive sports embodies the experience not just of winning, but the experience of losing. The losing is almost as critical. When you’re playing sports and you do badly, you have no choice but to pick yourself up and carry on. That process really builds confidence. It’s an incredibly useful proving ground for business and leadership.”

Vin McCaffrey, a former college baseball player and the founder of Game Plan, a company that helps athletes find employment off the field, agrees. “[Female athletes] are very used to working in a male-dominated environment. They’re not bashful, they know how to step up, they are self-assertive,” he says. “Athletes have really transferable skills: Ability to work with a team, ability to manage their time, ability to deliver on commitments.”

What has not yet been closely studied, according to Cornell’s Kniffen, is whether elite athletes—say, those who play in college or compete internationally—tend to perform better in the work world than whose sports careers peak in high school or Little League.

Ironically, in fact, there’s reason to think that some elite athletes face disadvantages in the professional world. It’s very hard for would-be Olympians to simultaneously train with the necessary degree of single-mindedness and hold down a full-time job, let alone lay the groundwork for a career in a competitive field. Instead, many opt for a part-time job or cobble together multiple jobs to make ends meet and still compete.

As a result, their career prospects after the Games aren’t necessarily bountiful. “When Olympic athletes decide they’re done, and they’re in their late 20s or early 30s, they’re ready to hop into the working world. But their work experience is often little to none,” Craig Leon of the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, told WIRED.

That said, most young athletes will hang up their cleats long before their sports careers start to interfere with their professional aspirations. When they do, they and their parents can take comfort that the time spent on the playing field (and driving carpools) wasn’t wasted.“The next time a parent feels stressed shuttling to or from a child’s practice,” says Kniffin, they should keep in mind that “research reaffirms the value of that activity for the child’s long-term benefit.”