Leicester City Football Club winning the Premier League. Usain Bolt winning his third Olympic gold medal in the 100m. Andy Murray winning Wimbledon. England winning the rugby World Cup in 2003. Virginia Wade winning Wimbledon. England winning the football World Cup in 1966...
Depending on your age and inclination, I am sure you can remember where you were, and how you watched, when one or more of these sporting events happened. Or, closer to home, there are other sporting events which are memorable, such as Jonathan Edwards’ Olympic gold medal in 2000 or Newcastle United winning the FA Cup in 1955. Whatever the event, for most of us there is a memory of a sporting event which means a lot to us. But why?
On one level, sport seems entirely pointless. Most games revolve around an arbitrary, and in some cases, arcane set of rules which seem designed to ask competitors to perform ridiculous tasks. Why try to hit a little ball into a hole hundred of yards away with nothing more than a metal stick? Why do grown men and women run up and down a field trying to put a bag of air at one end or the other? It’s all patently ludicrous. Aside from health benefits, which can be gained in other ways, why do we bother putting all this effort into pointless activities? And, why do so many people spend so much of their time and money watching sportsmen and women conduct their meaningless tasks? There are two reasons why sport is so compelling. The first is the sheer exhilaration in raising the capability of the human body to the maximum of its potential. We evolved to perform certain feats on order to survive, but there is a huge pleasure in testing the body to its limit. We want to know what the limits of those powers are. What is the fastest we can run 100 metres; how high could we jump, and how much can a person lift?
The second reason is the theatre and emotion of top level sports. For the athletes, this is as much about mental strength as it is physical capability, and ability to deal with the stresses and strains of match point or the penalty kick can be what marks out the truly great athlete. For the spectators, the vicarious thrill of victory, or the despair of defeat, provide us with an emotional rollercoaster which makes us feel so much more alive. Our everyday lives can pass in a mundane stroll; empathising with those who put themselves in the cauldron of a football field or athletics stadium allow us to access the highs and lows of competition. What makes games a game though is that nothing ultimately rests on the outcome. Fundamentally, who wins doesn’t matter; or at least not for spectators. Whether your team wins or loses, you will get up the next day, carrying on with your life the same way, irrespective of yesterday’s result. Nobody died, as they say.
At least that’s how it should be. Recently, I settled down to watch the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool. The evening made for grim viewing for a number of reasons, including the performance of Liverpool’s goalkeeper, Loris Karius, who was at fault for two of three goals scored by Real Madrid. It was probably the most unfortunate evening on record for any goalie in an event of that magnitude. The man himself was clearly in huge distress after the final whistle.
What was quite shocking however was the reaction afterwards, inevitably on social media, by a number of supposed sports fans. They made death threats against Karius and wished illnesses and other fatalities on members of his family. Whilst these were in the minority, the flames were fanned by other media outlets in such a way that there were fears for the goalkeeper’s mental health and he has deactivated his Twitter account.
This is clearly wrong. No one should be made to suffer for mistakes which, under the eyes of watching millions, any of us could make. That isn’t what sport is about. There is a famous saying from a former Liverpool manager, Bill Shankly, that Football isn’t a matter of life and death; it’s more important than that. But even Shankly made that statement knowingly. Sport is not a life and death matter, though it may sometimes feel it. It’s fine and indeed right to take it seriously, but it is the taking part not the winning which is what sport really is about.
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