Competitive environments can produce incredibly different behaviours in competitors. It's entirely social.
When it's accepted that asshole behaviour is the behaviour of the community then that becomes dominant. When it's not accepted and instead ostracised or affects their ability to compete then being nicey nicey becomes dominant.
I've seen complete and total assholes conform to becoming nicey nicey on account of a push by leadership (tournament operators mainly) to make environments nicer in order to drive up participation and increase attendee retention. Those very assholes complained about it in much the same way Armstrong is here before they ultimately conformed to it and now prefer it themselves.
I remember looking really hard for the clip but not being able to find it, but in Mr Olympia, Chris Bumstead, the classic men's physique division champion from 2019-2023, was decidedly not an asshole. He was all "people get mad at me because I do what I have to do and don't make it into a whole philosophy."
UFC's top athletes come in a rainbow of attitudes from successwinners to "look at me now" to "I'm a criminal" to "I did it for my country" to "I'm here to entertain."
I don't know if it counts, but speedrunners celebrate each other because it's a community effort to discover new glitches and push the game to its limits. It takes more than just the WR holder to get the time the WR achieves. It might be a lack of prestige because nobody outside the community will let you finish the sentence that you're the best Majora's Mask any% speedrunner before their eyes glaze over. You have to really like the game.
BJJ's Gordon Ryan, accomplished no gi grappler, is kind of an asshole and likes to shitpost and troll. I haven't seen much of him, but I don't see a lot of E.S Posthumus - Arise videos compiling him and his monologues.
Maybe it's when you command millions of dollars (NBA and NFL) or when you're part of the Olympics (cycling and boxing) that you start to sniff your own farts.
Competitive environments can produce incredibly different behaviours in competitors. It's entirely social.
When it's accepted that asshole behaviour is the behaviour of the community then that becomes dominant. When it's not accepted and instead ostracised or affects their ability to compete then being nicey nicey becomes dominant.
I've seen complete and total assholes conform to becoming nicey nicey on account of a push by leadership (tournament operators mainly) to make environments nicer in order to drive up participation and increase attendee retention. Those very assholes complained about it in much the same way Armstrong is here before they ultimately conformed to it and now prefer it themselves.
I remember looking really hard for the clip but not being able to find it, but in Mr Olympia, Chris Bumstead, the classic men's physique division champion from 2019-2023, was decidedly not an asshole. He was all "people get mad at me because I do what I have to do and don't make it into a whole philosophy."
UFC's top athletes come in a rainbow of attitudes from successwinners to "look at me now" to "I'm a criminal" to "I did it for my country" to "I'm here to entertain."
I don't know if it counts, but speedrunners celebrate each other because it's a community effort to discover new glitches and push the game to its limits. It takes more than just the WR holder to get the time the WR achieves. It might be a lack of prestige because nobody outside the community will let you finish the sentence that you're the best Majora's Mask any% speedrunner before their eyes glaze over. You have to really like the game.
BJJ's Gordon Ryan, accomplished no gi grappler, is kind of an asshole and likes to shitpost and troll. I haven't seen much of him, but I don't see a lot of E.S Posthumus - Arise videos compiling him and his monologues.
Maybe it's when you command millions of dollars (NBA and NFL) or when you're part of the Olympics (cycling and boxing) that you start to sniff your own farts.