Stereotyping, Anyone?

Yesterday, am New York ran a photo of some buff actor with a little blurb saying he had severe asthma as a kid, and now look at him.

(I pitched the issue in the recycling bin in exasperation, and I can't remember what actor it was or for what movie he's been photographed in something resembling a loin cloth.)

What DO we think asthmatics look like? Emaciated and sickly? Overweight and wheezy?

Try sprinter Jackie Joyner-Kersee, swimmer Mark Spitz, marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, football star Jerome Bettis, crazy basketballer Dennis Rodman, English-Channel-swimmer Allison Streeter, Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich.

And maybe the person in front of you on the jogging path or the one next to you at the gym.  Open your mind.