All The Other Kids With The Pumped Up Kicks, You'd Better Run...

February 28, 2019 4:54 PM

Thirteen year-old soccer prodigy Olivia Moultrie has declined her full scholarship to UNC (which she received at age 11), just turned pro, and signed a multiyear endorsement deal with Nike.

You can view her highlights reel here. Also check out her Nike promo and the "Dream Crazy" ad (previously) she's in.

posted by Bob Regular (39 comments total)

I'm all for her flipping the bird to the corrupt US college sports system. I guess she can play on the national U-17 team but I dunno if there's a conflict with her going pro. I guess she'll be on sort of elite teams the rest of the U-17 players play on. And I wish her the best but there's a huge gap between 13 and 17 in terms of athletics. But she could well become even more of a player than she already is which would be a heck of a thing.
posted by GuyZero at 5:31 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

Is there any possible way this could be healthy for her? I’m sure it’s great for the industry. But children going pro in anything, sports and acting included, seems like a nearly guaranteed route to developmental issues. I also worry that she is being robbed of a childhood and teen years to build a career and/or bank account at the risk of a permanent injuries that could pull her out of the sport at a really early age. And then she wouldn’t have the sport, and she wouldn’t have an education. Am I being too curmudgeonly?
posted by Bella Donna at 5:38 PM on February 28, 2019 [13 favorites]

That highlight reel is amazing.

And she’s like...just a normal sized child. Who is also a wizard.

WRT exploitation: soccer is dangerous; if she can be the best in the world in a few years there’s literally no reason to waste years of that risk playing in college. And this isn’t unique to her. Elite athletics almost always requires intense discipline and training from childhood, sometimes early childhood. So does (really) elite mathematics, or musical ability, or any number of things. This isn’t really a special case, except for the whole concussion thing, but I bet that you couldn’t keep that kid off the pitch if you tried.

She wants to be the best in the world at something. Very few people get that chance, and this is what it requires. Let her try.
posted by schadenfrau at 5:43 PM on February 28, 2019 [15 favorites]

Also: she’s one of the very few getting paid. She’s not foregoing anything. She can always go back to school, and in the meantime she gets to break barriers for women’s sports at 13.
posted by schadenfrau at 5:45 PM on February 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

I mean, it doesn't doesn't address "robbed of a childhood," but it's presumably a lot of money, which if some portion of it is saved would still be just as good for an education later if the whole soccer thing doesn't pan out, and playing at the collegiate level runs a non-zero risk for injury too, so.
posted by juv3nal at 5:45 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

Just to be clear: are people concerned about all the elite competitors at any number of things, athletic and academic, who were also presumptively robbed of a childhood, since dedicated training from an early age is pretty much a requirement for elite performance, or just this one? Is there a reason for that, or...?
posted by schadenfrau at 5:50 PM on February 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

But children going pro in anything, sports and acting included, seems like a nearly guaranteed route to developmental issues.

It seems to me to depend a lot on the parents. If they've got their heads screwed on right, some kids do fine. The worst stories of child achievement gone wrong usually seem to involve families in which even an average child might struggle for what most of us would consider "a normal childhood."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:06 PM on February 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

I found the beginning of her demo a bit overproduced with reverse effects, etc. so I’m glad I watched to the end. She has amazing ball placement and finds space on the field while triple teamed. I hope she realizes her dreams!
posted by meinvt at 6:07 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I don't give a shit about whether she goes to college. It does concern me that she appears not to be going to junior high school. What happens if she gets injured? I don't think it's a great idea to homeschool any kid so they don't get distracted from the single-minded pursuit of a goal.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:09 PM on February 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

Does not taking the scholarship mean not going to university? My assumption was that she would take the giant pile of cash, pay her own way through school conditon-free (those athletic scholarships require her to play, right?) and pocket the leftover money. I think that's a pretty good plan.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:19 PM on February 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Minor side question: any particular reason why the post title references a song about a school shooter? Besides the sort-of Nike reference?
posted by eviemath at 6:19 PM on February 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

She could be like millions of other kids, and be stuck in an indifferent-at-best school district and/or get hit by a car while out riding her bike. She could blow out a knee just as easily at the neighborhood park. Not to mention that junior high school is exactly when girls in this country start receiving the majority of their programming that they’re academically and athletically incapable and inferior, and that their potential beauty is their only value. This kid’s going to miss out on most of that while also making a bazillion dollars? GOOD.

Zion Williamson, the top draft pick whose Nike blew out during a game, has been training for the NBA since he was 9. I don’t see anyone crying about how exploited he is and whether he was robbed of a childhood.
posted by Autumnheart at 6:38 PM on February 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

Zion Williamson, the top draft pick whose Nike blew out during a game, has been training for the NBA since he was 9. I don’t see anyone crying about how exploited he is and whether he was robbed of a childhood.

There are people questioning his current situation, but they're all pressing for it to become possible to join the NBA earlier, not lamenting some childhood lost.
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 6:44 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

If she's going into a league which prohibits headers, I think it's a great idea, but if headers are allowed, I think it's terrible:

Repeatedly heading a soccer ball exacts a toll on an athlete’s brain. But this cost—measured by the volume of brain cells damaged—is five times greater for women than for men, new research suggests.

The study provides a biological explanation for why women report more severe symptoms and longer recovery times than men following brain injuries in sports. Previously some researchers had dismissed female players’ complaints because there was little physiological evidence for the disparity, says Michael Lipton, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a co-author of the paper.

Lipton’s team used magnetic resonance imaging to peer into the skulls of 98 adult amateur soccer players—half of them female and half male—who headed the ball with varying frequency during the prior year. For women, eight of the brain’s signal-carrying white matter regions showed structural deterioration, compared with just three such regions in men (damage increased with the number of reported headers). Furthermore, female athletes in the study suffered damage to an average of about 2,100 cubic millimeters of brain tissue, compared with an average of just 400 cubic millimeters in the male athletes.

posted by jamjam at 6:45 PM on February 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

I will grant you that children and teens who participate in elite activities of any sort tend to be rare and privileged in a variety of ways. But personally I tend to see it as a form of adult exploitation that uses young talent to satisfy a variety of markets for entertainment. It’s fine if I’m being a crackpot; no one has to agree with me. But no, I am not objecting to this single example. If someone has been training for the NBA since he was nine, for example, was that his idea or his parents’ idea?

In all seriousness, I wish there were some kind of mandated right to childhood. I don’t know how that should be defined exactly. I just think that children traditionally are exploited by adults for a variety of reasons. This may be an example of one of the most sophisticated forms of that exploitation. It’s certainly a huge improvement over children making carpets or mining or picking crops. Even so, it is not cost free for this remarkable young athlete to turn pro at the age of 13. I very much hope that the benefits will outweigh the costs in her case.
posted by Bella Donna at 6:49 PM on February 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

The NYT sheds some light on that subject:

Moultrie’s next step is unclear. A move to Europe is most likely impossible for several years; FIFA rules, with certain exceptions, generally prevent youth prospects from signing with foreign clubs before they turn 18.

A far more likely prospect would involve Moultrie’s latching on as a developmental player with a team in the top United States league, the N.W.S.L. But that path has its own obstacles; before she could ever sign a professional contract, the league would essentially have to create new allocation rules to deal with her unique situation. In addition, a player currently must be 18 to play in the N.W.S.L.

So either way, she’s not going to be playing league soccer until she’s legally an adult.

I’d like to think that, between her endorsements and her contract, there would be a medical team dedicated to keeping her healthy.
posted by Autumnheart at 6:51 PM on February 28, 2019

That...sounds like no one should be doing headers ever again, and especially not pubescent children.

I wonder if the gender disparity has to do with neck/trap muscle development. I know boxers train the crap out of their necks and traps because they absorb a lot of the force that would otherwise knock them out. Weak neck = more brain shaking. (Or something.)

Uh, either way though. Maybe let’s not hit things with our heads, as a general rule for the species.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:53 PM on February 28, 2019 [8 favorites]

Also, not to be a morbid jackhole, but what kind of world is this going to be by the time she’s 35? Let her have her shot.
posted by Autumnheart at 6:54 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

The endorsement deal is for "more than the value of her UNC scholarship", which seems like Nike's way of saying $200,000 or so.

The endorsement deal just means she's not eligible to play NCAA sports, if soccer ends up not working out she can still apply to be a regular student if she wants that.

As for a childhood lost--I think about that all the time when I watch big-time college athletics. You don't get a basketball scholarship to Duke without dedicating ten or so years of your childhood to being the best you can be, and even most of the guys on their team are never going to make the NBA. Sure Zion and Reddish and the other guy are gonna be first round picks and make a minimum of $10 or so million (first round picks get guaranteed contracts in the NBA), but most of their roster will be never make a living off of basketball. How many of them would still do it if they knew for certain at age 12 that what they were doing was just going to be a really, really serious hobby?
posted by skewed at 6:54 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

...literally all of them know the odds. Some of them feel like they have no other options, which is fucked, and which I do think is super fraught when you talk about, like, football/the meatgrinder, and it’s possible we’ll find out that soccer is equally terrible for you, but like...literally they all know the odds of making it. Many of them know the stats obsessively.

Do any of the people wondering about this actually know any of these kids or is this all just hypothetical?
posted by schadenfrau at 6:59 PM on February 28, 2019

schadenfrau, one of the hypotheses is just what you suggest.
posted by jamjam at 7:00 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also now I’m just mentally trying to rank sports in order of meatgrinderishness, and it’s actually kind of hard. Like in the inner circle of meatgrinder hell is football, boxing, ballet, and women’s gymnastics, right? How do you even quantify the damage?

And pretty much the only one of those four horsemen you can come to late is boxing. Idk maybe football for specialized positions? But ballet and gymnastics, man...they have to start young.

Ok this got bleak.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:07 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

For what it’s worth, I think it’s amazing that she’s been training with older girls and with boys teams and has a ferocious talent and obvious dedication. I don’t question any part of that. Now I will stop being a spoilsport and leave.
posted by Bella Donna at 7:07 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

...literally all of them know the odds.

Knowing the odds is not understanding them, and major competitive sports are full of people who are absolutely delusional about their chance of success, it's practically inherent in the psyche of world-class athletes.
posted by skewed at 7:43 PM on February 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

I think we can leave Moultrie out of that equation, since she did, in fact, make it to the pros.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:45 PM on February 28, 2019

Is there any possible way this could be healthy for her?

Pretty much every pro athlete or olympic athlete is on their path starting around 13. Olympic swimmers have been identified around that age. Probably every future pro hockey player is being schlepped to the rink at 5 AM by a parent along with 20 kids who'll never go anywhere in hockey for each future pro. Based on my son's high school baseball experience, practically zero kids start playing baseball after grade 9. Whether you make it to the MLB, get a university scholarship or just have some fond memories, those kids are all starting around 13. Lindsey Vonn was skiing year-round at age 7 according to Wikipedia. Serena Williams' family moved to Florida so she could attend a tennis academy there when she was 9. Michael Phelps was a record holder at 10 and 11 and he'd been on swim teams since 7 apparently. Local swim teams to me - which includes the Santa Clara Swim Club, a club that grooms Olympic athletes - starts kids at age 6 for their developmental groups.

I guess it may seem like a lost childhood and I'm not going to say every kid groomed for sports ends up happy about the decision, but if this is what you want, this is how you do it. Could it end badly? Sure. But no one is walking onto a soccer team at age 16 or 18 and making it to the majors.
posted by GuyZero at 8:00 PM on February 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

she’s not going to be playing league soccer until she’s legally an adult.

She won't be getting paid but there is a national-level women's soccer U-17 teams with 15 year-olds playing on it who play in very competitive leagues.
posted by GuyZero at 8:04 PM on February 28, 2019

Title is horribly inappropriate. That song is about school shootings. One of the band members had a relative who survived the Columbine Massacre.
posted by jwest at 8:08 PM on February 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

She reminds me of Wayne Gretzky.

GuyZero: "Pretty much every pro athlete or olympic athlete is on their path starting around 13. Olympic swimmers have been identified around that age. Probably every future pro hockey player is being schlepped to the rink at 5 AM by a parent along with 20 kids who'll never go anywhere in hockey for each future pro."

Hockey starts way before that (in Canada at least). The half dozen NHL players in my extended family all started playing hockey before they started kindergarten. My nephew who is well on his way to the NHL was an obvious born goalie at age three.
posted by Mitheral at 9:52 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

The title of this thread is shockingly tone-deaf. Quoting a song about school killers, for a thread about a school-age girl?
posted by andreaazure at 2:57 AM on March 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

So sorry about the title, everyone! I had no idea about any connection between "Pumped Up Kicks" and Columbine, or school shootings at all, for that matter. My kids like to sing and this song is in the standard rotation of ditties I hear them chirping out around the house all the time, so I had assumed it was just another bubblegum pop anthem with a fun chorus. Admittedly, knowing the songwriter's original intent does make the post title rather cringe-worthy.
posted by Bob Regular at 3:23 AM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

I don’t think everyone knows that song is about school shooting. Many people don’t know more than the chorus line used as the title and assume it is just about kids liking fancy sneakers.

The chorus, for reference, is:

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, out run my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

posted by eviemath at 3:58 AM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Pumped-Up Kicks is a bit deceptive like that, kinda like Semi-Charmed Life.
posted by andreaazure at 4:07 AM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

I will grant you that children and teens who participate in elite activities of any sort tend to be rare and privileged in a variety of ways. But personally I tend to see it as a form of adult exploitation that uses young talent to satisfy a variety of markets for entertainment. It’s fine if I’m being a crackpot; no one has to agree with me. But no, I am not objecting to this single example. If someone has been training for the NBA since he was nine, for example, was that his idea or his parents’ idea?

So my cousin is a professional tennis player. We're very close, as we're respectively the only children of two sisters. He's currently 29 years old and finally seeing some success (within the top 100 in the world). I can tell you that we were both introduced to tennis very early on, definitely given plenty of encouragement, but it was obvious to anyone who considered the situation objectively that he was the one with real passion and drive. He just started playing tennis when accompanying me to the courts as a toddler, for want of anything better to do. By the time he was 9 it was entirely his own striving - he lived and breathed for tennis and truly loved it (and still loves it) more than anything else he could spend his time on. Don't underestimate the ambitions of children.
posted by peacheater at 5:51 AM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

Seems like children *can* be like that, driven from early age. Just seems like *most* of the child athlete stories it's someone else doing the driving (at least for a lot in beginning). Not all.
posted by aleph at 6:28 AM on March 1, 2019

On most of those highlight goals, the keeper is so small that they don't have a prayer of covering the relevant space-in particular anything in the air is just going to sail in over their head. So the degree of difficulty is super low and a precision finish isn't required. You get something of the same effect in a mens league where al kinds of cheesy chips and lobs and passes into the goal become plausible when the opponent puts a short guy in net. Maybe girls soccer should be played on smaller goals.
posted by Kwine at 6:50 AM on March 1, 2019

are people concerned about all the elite competitors at any number of things, athletic and academic, who were also presumptively robbed of a childhood, since dedicated training from an early age is pretty much a requirement for elite performance

I'll bite: Yes. Such training comes at the expense of balance. Barring disability in one direction or another, your little math nerd should learn to read and your little soccer nerd should learn math and your budding language nerd should learn to move their little body around.

Early specialization can be super-alienating, especially when it's competitive in nature. In the US this is often effectively created by a form of child abuse. Behind many "prodigies" is a super-unhealthy filial relationship consisting of forced practice and
Svengalis and acting out failed parental ambitions.

I'll go one farther and say team spectator sports in general are an enormous suck of human talent and energy that should be given far less attention worldwide. Playing sports is great, but being a *bigteam sportsfan* manifests itself in all sorts of ways that are net negatives AFAIC, especially when people act out their fantasies through their children.

Since that's clearly an enormously unpopular opinion that isn't remotely about to get traction, I suppose I'm just pissing in the ocean here. Just pointing out that there's not some universal acceptance of sports=good.

On the other hand, y'all know she's not like, literally going to college next year, right? Reading between the lines it sounds like these are some suburban megachurch white people who are on the "likely to homeschool" spectrum anyway; if this kid decides to go to college and is admitted, I doubt she'll have much of a problem.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:01 AM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]

Lionel Messi leaved Argentina and moved to Barcelona to play for the team when he was 13.
posted by TheGoodBlood at 11:28 AM on March 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm glad she's doing well, but I have seen the life this kind of training required, and it's not great for anyone and should probably be illegal. I put my foot down for my daughter - she's not going to be on the gymnastics team where she spends more than 6 hours a week at the age of 6 training. (she's older now) If she wants to go pro, she can do it on her own time when she's old enough to make that decision.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:50 PM on March 1, 2019 [2 favorites]