Essay #226 "Are Sportsmen Are Overrated?" 31.08.18 Sports plays a very important role in our culture and in our lives. It has power to unite people and cross the borders between them. However, the enormous difference in wages between ordinary people and professional athletes makes absolutely no sense. In my opinion, despite the fact that sports are highly popular and comprise a huge part of our lives, such huge salaries for athletes are just unfair. First of all, despite the fact that many sports include very important and complicated activities like running, jumping and throwing or kicking stuff, and at a first glance they could be deemed to be as important as the work of an engineer or a doctor, they actually are not. Also in most cases, there are a lot of talented athletes who have no chance to make it in a professional sport. Despite the fact that most athletes are clearly overpaid, in most cases they are not even the best in their field. However, this discrepancy is created by our culture, as most sports events attract a great number of viewers, and organizers of these events can earn huge sums, and, therefore, all participants can benefit from this. So, athletes are paid so much not because they set up such salaries for themselves, but because our culture creates a situation in which people agree to pay them such wages. If teaching or solving mathematical problems were huge public events, maybe we would make a great leap in our progress. Also, this sphere, as it allows people to make money, distracts many sponsors from other fields. The money which can be spent on the development of medicine, science or on promotion of some useful products is spent on plain entertainment. That is why there is a common situation in which some science laboratories cannot get money for their research, and at the same time young athletes are able to lead luxurious lives. To conclude, despite the fact that sports are quite important for our lives, we should look at this from another angle. People spend enormous amounts of money on pure entertainment, rather then apply it to spheres which really need it, such as medicine and science. Underrating of these spheres creates the situation in which people may have no access to free medical help or education, but everyone has a large TV which will entertain them any time they want.