THE VALUE OF SPORTS

 Agreed, sports is a billion-dollar industry. However, sports bring more than economic value. Actually, because so few engage in professional sports and fewer yet win, most persons participating in sports do not derive economic value from sports. Then why stay in something if economic profit is so unlikely?

There is much more in sports than the money. For instance, did you know that every two years, preceding each edition of the Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the United Nations adopts a resolution, calling for the observance of the Olympic Truce? This tradition harks back to the Games of Ancient Greece where the kings of the region would sign a treaty to that local inhabitants, athletes and artists could safely travel to the Olympic Games. The Truce brought conflicts to a halt from the seven days before the beginning of the Games until seven days after their conclusion.

 

On November 21, 2023, during the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, a resolution was adopted. The resolution called for the observance of the Olympic Truce from July 19 to September 2024. The main objectives pursued through the Truce are to mobilize youth for the promotion of the Olympic ideal, to use sport to help build bridges between communities in conflict, and more generally, to create a window of opportunity for dialog and reconciliation.

 

In addition, sports provides a platform for excellence. High goals are set. There are no limits to the ambitions of achievement. Sports also illustrates how to deal with disappointment, how to be persistent and how to overcome. Champion athletes often tell stories of failure, resilience, discipline and a teachable spirit. Upon reflection on his successes, Jamaican Usain Bolt said, “I trained for four years, in order to run nine seconds, and people give up when they don’t see results in two months.”

 

I was never an athlete nor a basketball player like Kobe Bryant. However, I continue to learn from the late basketball legend. Michael Jordan remembered Bryant reaching out to him at all hours of the night to get advice on certain basketball moves. Bryant’s relentless work ethic helped him set incredible basketball records – all-time leading scorer in Lakers franchise history, first guard in NBA history to play at least 20 seasons, the second most points scored in a single game – 81 points, behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game.

 

In essence, the great value of sport is that it teaches us to recognize the difference between winning and pursuing excellence – the better and much harder achievement. And because we loose more than win in sports, we are constantly taught how to handle failure. Every sport illustrates that more people lose than win. However, to lose does not define who you are – losing provides opportunities for trying again, improving and making projections.

 

I wish I could say this to some of the parents I see at the soccer games I attend with my grandchildren. Players on losing teams are laughed at and reprimanded. Referees are ridiculed and verbally abused. Parents need to learn how to accept victory graciously and defeat honorably.

 

Sports has a capacity to transcend barriers and to energize people, all around the world. Many of the values that underlie sports are the core values of social justice, values that should lie at the heart of our Christian faith. Sports mobilize people in far more ways than the purely physical. Even though one person may represent a community at a sporting event, the community shares the joy or the challenges of failure. Communities never showed their faces on the awards’ podium, but their contributions were invaluable.

 

We all have similar support in the journey of life. Like any athlete, I can say, without the help of others, I would not be where I am today. Teamwork is absolutely essential. Players should never be arrogant as though their victory was a solo achievement. Victory is a combination of skill, failure, adequate coaching, therapy and encouragement.

 

Integrity is equally essential in sports. Enhancement drugs are not allowed in sports. The playing field must be level for everyone participating. In addition, rules of the game must be followed. Corruption undermines both achievement and trust. That is also true in other areas of life.  The feeling of joy is not only in the outcome, but also in the process. That process requires teamwork, integrity, diligence and athletic ability. 

 

If the apostle Paul were around, he would agree. In writing to the Corinthians, he said: “… run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:24-26).