ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of the role model concept in moral evaluations of athletes in general, and of their alcohol-related behavior in particular. It reviews that people are entitled to expect reasonable standards of behavior from athletes and that we are justified in condemning them when they fail to meet such standards. High-profile elite athletes are described as role models because of their extraordinary feats of skill, endurance, speed and power, and their character in terms of determination, courage, perseverance and self-sacrifice. Exemplifying ordinary virtue is important because people who are decent and honest are preferable to those who are not. Moreover, society and sporting communities depend on ordinary virtue, and role models play a crucial role in the development of such virtues in others. Sport is a paradigmatic example of the kinds of social practices where virtues are required to realize its internal goods. For MacIntyre, three virtues are given particular prominence: justice, courage and honesty.
