I thought this was an excellent discussion with ultra-marathoner and Ohio State professor of philosophy Sabrina Little. It involves running, sports, science, ethics and virtue, among other things.
https://biologos.org/podcast-episodes/sabrina-little-run-in-such-a-way
Hmmm. A link to a BioLogos resource can’t generate a preview. Odd. Anyway, she describes herself as basically a Thomist, so a few frequent posters should be interested. My takeaways:
Running long distances and being alone with one’s thoughts reminds me of the spiritual discipline of solitude/silence. That’s something non-athletes can take away from Dr. Little’s experience as a runner.
In terms of all sports being “formative space” for virtue, I agree. My dad died when I was a young man, and going through his things I found his spiral notebook for teaching Sunday School. Among his last lessons was, “God Is a Football Fan.” I had to laugh because he would be sitting in the choir visibly irritated if the pastor ran past noon when the Cowboys were playing, but the substance was virtue formation. I was lucky to have him as a dad.
Finally, whew!, I would add that I spent a decade teaching in juvenile detention, and I rarely ran across a kid who participated in sports, either in middle school or high school. I remember some research that this was particularly true of girls. Neither of my kids were particularly gifted, but I kept them involved in sports until they found other interests in high school.