Activating Scott Tinley, Part 3

Tinley bike
Originally uploaded by jjactive2.

Triathlon legend Scott Tinley recently talked to Activeness for a Q+A session that appears in the October issue of SwimBikeRun St. Louis Magazine. We're also running pieces of that interview on Activeness in serial form. To read the whole thing, get the magazine.

Read Part 1 of the interview.

Read Part 2 of the interview.

TINLEY Q+A, PART 3

What are you teaching?
I’m teaching at San Diego State and Cal State San Marcos. I teach a class called “Sport in Society” that covers sociology and social theory in sport. I teach that and the occasional writing class at a community college.

What do you like about teaching?
Everything. It’s similar to athletics. You have autonomy. Preparation is important. You feel like you are doing some good. You are an entertainer of sorts in the classroom. Unfortunately, it’s not a very well-compensated gig in America. I earned more for some two-hour races than I will for teaching a semester-long course in which I’m spending hundreds of hours trying to impact America’s future leaders.

But you don’t do it for the money. I don’t have a huge overhead and I don’t have a lot of needs other than paying my daughter’s college tuition. I’m lucky — we don’t need a lot.

Do you enjoy being in an academic environment?
Having been so physical for so many years, it’s nice to throw myself into the mind. I get a gas out of hanging out in the pub and engaging in these elaborate philosophical conversations. Before I would have laughed at those types of people and said, “What a bunch of geeks!” Now I’m going, “Yeah man, that’s me!”

Your most recent book, Racing the Sunset, deals with life after sport for professional athletes. Why did you write it?
For several reasons. First, it was something I needed to do to understand what I was experiencing psychologically.

What were you experiencing?
It was a classic case of being over-identified with something and not realizing it. Mine was not a sudden exit from the sport — I was fading away for a long time. When I finally left, I thought I would have lots of other opportunities and wouldn’t have problems adjusting. But the opposite happened and that took me by surprise. I was in a real funk for about two years. It affected my health.

How so?
For years I had been propping myself up with the constant release of various endorphin-style chemicals into my system. You don’t feel good until you go out for a run or swim. When you stop having that release, your body has to start all over and reach a level of homeostasis. That required a couple years of de-training.

Was it like withdrawing from a drug?
Absolutely. You are physically, psychologically, and emotionally addicted to what is being provided both from a chemical standpoint into your body and from a lifestyle perspective in terms of being outside doing all these activities. Then you don’t do them and it gets rough.

Part of my self-healing was to understand it. So I went back to school and studied it and did research. I did a master’s thesis that tried to take research threads to the next level and to explore new ideas. The culmination came with writing Racing the Sunset, which is part memoir and also has a lot of oral history. In writing the book I spoke about this topic with hundreds of ex-professional athletes, including a lot of A-listers.

Any stories hit you the hardest?
A lot of tragic stories don’t get told. Like the one about the guy who pitched in the majors for a year-and-a-half but threw out his arm and now is sleeping on cardboard under the bridge: Those stories still exist.

This whole concept of disposable heroes is troubling. We are in a disposable society. We go through cars, food, everything — it’s all very temporary. But when that ideology spills over to people, you have a real problem. In California the divorce rate is something like 62 percent. So nothing lasts, including our own ideals and ethical standards. As a critical thinker and having lived through it, I feel a responsibility to get the word out.

Did you succeed?
The book did OK. It’s actually selling better now based on word of mouth than it was when it came out two years ago. I receive one or two emails a week from people around the world telling me their stories and how the book resonated with them. Some tell me what helped them and others just thank me for sharing. That’s my reward.

I’m also trying to create a university institute that would be a clearinghouse or a networking group for various organizations that provide services for retired athletes. I’ll know soon if there is enough support to take this to the next level.

Can the general public relate to the plight of these athletes?
Many don’t give a damn about a retired pro. They say, “That guy has millions of dollars in the bank and he can be or do whatever he wants.” That’s fine, but a lot of people die rich and unhappy. They don’t need the money. They need other things.

Like what?
Like purpose, fulfillment, meaning, a reason for living, spirituality, camaraderie, a family. All the solid things that are not as fleeting as material possessions and everything this “culture of fame” in America has brought us.

Will Lance Armstrong struggle with that?
Lance is a different breed. I’ve known him since he was 14 when he came out to Southern California to train for a summer and lived a few doors down. He’s a good guy.

What do you like about him?
He’s still brash and outspoken and a little rough around the edges. But he honestly cares about people and about the people close to him. And he has done an incredible amount of good for cancer survivors. There are millions of people around the world who have been inspired by his athletic achievements. And he has given away a lot of money through his foundation. He has created this universality that a lot of athletic cultural icons never manage to do. Either they don’t take the time or they don’t understand their role.

Can Lance stay off the bike?
I don’t know — probably not. He’s too young. This whole deal with the French press is a little entertaining but it’s also disconcerting.

Is it lighting a fire under his butt?
But they [L’Equipe] aren’t going away. They love it. What does Lance have to gain? Is he really going to put it in their face? It’s like two kids fighting in a sandbox. The smarter kid gets up and walks away and says, “Fine, you take the sandbox and live there for the rest of your life because I’m going to go build a house.”

Could you tell when he was a teenager that Lance had what it took to be a champion?
He did have incredible inner strength. You knew he was going to reach a certain level. As far as triathlon goes, he was good swimmer and a great cyclist. With his body type, though, he could never run as fast as the sport demands. Even back then you had to run a 33:00-something 10K to be in the hunt to win a short-distance race. Of course now they run 30:30s. I think he made the right move to cycling!