“Athlete” is a general term that encompasses people that play sports professionally. The term is used in the context of physical sports, such as football and basketball, and not mind-oriented ones such as chess and pool. An athlete needs to maintain top performance of their body through regular exercise and a balanced, varied diet, and they must also practice specific routines aimed at improving their ability in their particular sport. Depending on the type of sport, an athlete may work and train alone, or as part of a team, and in both cases different personal skills are required to handle the job properly.
While there exist various forms of professional education for athletes, having one is rarely a requirement for becoming successful in any particular sport. There have been numerous cases where professional athletes have come to the scene through an amateur league, and this is a regular occurrence. An athlete’s training usually continues throughout their entire career, with regular and constant exercises – as they progress, usually professional physicians and other personnel are hired to assist them in their training and help them get the most out of their bodies.
An athlete’s annual salary can vary greatly depending on the sport and type of league, but unless it’s one of the major televised sports, salaries are pretty low – somewhere around the $30,000 mark. There are good prospects for advancing quickly, depending on the motivation and physical fitness of the athlete. Not many athletes earn a substantial sum of money, though – on the contrary, only a few are able to earn more than $50,000 a year.