CampbellSailing.com

Can Sports Save the World? - Thoughts before Vancouver

February 5th, 2010 in General.

On January 15th, The Atlantic Monthly ran an article online by author Adam Hofstetter titled “Can Sports Save the World?” He demonstrated through a number of cases that Sports cannot save the world, starting with the recent attack on the Togo soccer squad as they prepared to take on Angola in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Hofstetter shows evidence why people continue to “let our hopes obscure reality,” that people are fooled into thinking Sports can somehow cool tensions between nations. Regardless of the “Ping-pong” diplomacy and other idealized political friendships played out through sport, he makes his case against the idea of sports promoting peace noting the Munich massacre, the 1969 Honduras-El Salvador Soccer War, the delaying of a Chad v. Sudan soccer match, the cancelation of the 1916 Olympics among others. His complete article is linked here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001u/can-sports-save-the-world

Where I respect his evidence and see his point I regret his cynicism. The truth is that “Sports” cannot save the world, but “Sportsmanship” can. The superficial idealism of politicizing a soccer match between the US and Cuba, or Turkey and Armenia, or Iran and Israel can only be turned into true social capital if the athletes grasp each other after the game in respect for fair play and sincere effort. When the president of the United States and Russia come face-to-face at the Olympics opening ceremonies, it means only that they have seen each other. The context of their Olympic meeting, does nothing to prevent an order of attack on a bordering country as we saw in Russia and South Ossetia in 2008. Sport did not succeed in promoting peace. Sport alone cannot succeed in promoting peace.

Only with Sportsmanship can Sport inspire citizens of enemy nations to progress towards peace. Sport brings out the passion of battle between athletes. When the athletes respect the effort and skill of the each other those passions are incredible for all to see. But, only when the athletes congratulate each other for one victory and vow to meet again for competition another day, that inspires all to see.

The Winter Olympics are set to begin next week in Vancouver. We will see the passion of the athletes, coaches, and fans will show through in their emotion as they compete.  We will see joy, pride, anger, disappointment, and pain. The stress of the competitive environment guarantees those things. Only when athletes overcome those emotions does sport inspire peace.

There will be attempts to make political gain when athletes from enemy nations compete against one and other. The politicization of these events does nothing to promote peace. If, however, an inkling of sportsmanship sparks between those athletes, hope will spring from that moment.

Sport has nothing to do with peace except that they provide the platform for Sportsmanship. Mr. Hofstetter fails to recognize the power of Sportsmanship as perhaps one of humanity’s greatest catalysts for peace.

0 comments.