Bar is set too high for young athletes.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Randy Rogers For The Register-Guard

Twenty-five years ago, U.S. athletes were presumed to be at a disadvantage to athletes from the Eastern Bloc. Our image was of laboratories where kids were poked, prodded, measured and medicated to promote higher levels of sports performance.

We envisioned children attending athletic boot camps where those who failed were tossed on a biological heap of wasted talent. Only the strongest, fittest and most genetically gifted were rewarded and provided opportunity for success.

As the Berlin Wall came down, the edge in athleticism also shifted west. Certainly, records continued to be set with alarming frequency in China, keeping alive the threat of athletic supremacy under communist rule. But for the most part, top marks in athletics were more frequently being set by western Europeans and North Americans.

The emergence of community sports organizations, academy systems and central coordination of athletic development by national governing bodies has propelled American athletes back onto podiums in sports from basketball to soccer, cycling to track and field.

The fallacy of our image of the Eastern Bloc was that the athletes were not being tested and pigeonholed into specific sports but examined for athletic predispositions. Genetically predisposed endurance athletes or those with a preponderance of fast twitch muscles were being exposed to a variety of sports within those domains until they found the one in which they thrived. Passion in sport was known then to be a considerable factor in performance.

Take a look at where we are in this country today. Nine-year-old girls are being treated for depression over not making the cut for a premier soccer team. Thirteen-year-old boys are taking creatine to accelerate muscle development before their bodies have ramped up the production of testosterone. The examples are far too common. Choose soccer over basketball - at 10 years old? Kids being sent off to live in sport academies before their first school dance? We are creating worlds of highly specialized, pressurized children.

Next, take a look at the age of our national sports stars. World champion tennis players in their mid-30s. Professional football and baseball players in their 40s, by golly! When you consider that high-level athletes are aging better than ever, the rush is not on to make our children succeed too young. Never have we seen so many athletes participating so long into life due to smarter training regimens, medical treatments and injury prevention measures.

Instead, let's consider that image of Eastern Bloc kids being tossed on a biological heap of humanity if they failed to produce for their countries. Let's make sure in this country today we are not creating masses of psychologically destroyed kids, let alone those damaged by too much training too soon to enjoy a life of health and fitness.

If we back off on the accelerator and reduce the demand to focus on one sport too soon, we will still produce champions. Possibly even more of them. Better yet, if they develop a love for sport - without enduring burnout or dropout - we may be able to ride this wave of national sports prominence and still see fields and gyms filled with active adults far into our future.

As a nation, we are failing to make the fitness grade. Perhaps we set the bar so high that many fail to make even the first step, let alone make the leap to a lifetime of fitness and activity.

Programs that balance sports, family, culture and free time are a solution for the excesses we see in too many youth sports. In most cases, the parents are the driving force.

Certainly, for some kids, the lure to become the next Mia Hamm or Lebron James drives them regardless of parental support.

As a culture, let's remove the blinders. Start with school and community programs that encourage a healthy exposure to sports and physical activity. Make room for the kids who decide to turn off the video game, step away from the couch and head outside to play.

Today, our best example of such a program operates with zero tax dollars. Kidsports and some of our other community programs are models for creating active, healthy kids.

If you aren't participating as a parent, coach or official, consider becoming a sponsor. These programs are true community gems. Support in-school activities that teach the value of fitness and activity.

For every dollar we spend promoting fitness and sports we will be saving in health care costs, insurance rates and social programs.

Randy Rogers is sports director for Kidsports. A graduate of South Eugene High School and the University of Oregon, he has coached skiing at the Olympic and world championship levels and previously worked as director of skiing at the Willamette Pass ski area.