[TalonDJ]

My older sister wanted to be a cheerleader and a waitress before mom started homeschooling her. Within a year she wanted to be an astronaut. Within 10 years she was one of the first Marine female combat pilots. The promotion of high school sports caused one of those first goals and contributed nothing to the later ones.

which field do we expect people to aim for?

You are making his point for him.

[Eagle Eye]

No, he seems to think that they are mutually exclusive as evidenced by his statements that atheletes are washed up at 19 and bound to be thugs.

Pro sports only account for a small fraction of all athletics and cannot be accurately used to represent all athletes.

But the universe of professional chess players is even smaller!

As far as contributions to society, look at the spin offs from sports such as the jobs and charitable contributions AND the tax dollars generated. Let's also look at the advances in medicine and biology based on athletic competitions.

So far I think that if one looks objectively at who contributes more to society one would have to say that the contribution of sports is much greater than that of chess.