Athletics: A Frivolous Activity?

It's interesting how people who don't run often have certain opinions of those who have a long and deep commitment to it. It's not unusual to hear some folks say that our love for athletics is excessive and misguided.
 In the following quote Percy Cerutty writes about this and offers his opinion:
"Athletics is still looked upon as possessing a freakish and juvenile quality only to be valued every four years---at Olympic Games time---is put a bad last in the national scheme and evaluation of things. Success in business--even if the successful one dies before fifty! Success in politics,success in almost anything is valued before success in the real business of living, living healthily, actively, artistically."
What makes the above even more insightful is that it was written in 1959,a time when the "world" was less materialistic than it is today.
 Unfortunately, career and how much one has, tends to determine whether or not one is viewed as being successful in the eyes of others. For committed athletes success is a subjective term, not determined by having this or being that.