Sportsmanship – how do you handle defeat?

There is a difference between being a skilled sportsman and having sportsmanship.

In today’s modern world is there even place for such a concept? Why do I say such a thing? To put it quite simply – MONEY!!

Anything else? FAME! Yes, fame is important to the superstars of the world because it means lucrative contracts, and prestige at home. Admiration from your peers.

The armchair critic watching his television knows better than the coach and even the player. Often this critic has never played the game or at the most played it as an enthusiastic amateur. They forget what it was like when they played; how they excused their own mistakes. They felt that they could do this as they certainly knew how passionate they were in their desire to win.

But these professional fellows? What the hell is wrong with them? Why can’t the coach do the most obvious thing to let the team win??

I watch soccer on our national television, all the local commentators, drawn from the ranks of the local elite coaches and players; the finest that South Africa has to offer, arrogantly talk the biggest load of nonsense, no wonder our Bafana Bafana languish far down the international ranking tables. I must admit there are a couple of fellows who seem to know what they are talking about.

Another thing putting such tremendous pressure on the sportsman, I am referring in particular to the Soccer World Cup being played in Russia, is the weight of expectation of their supporters. For example, the sadness in the countries who have been eliminated in the knockout stages.

Some teams are so desperate to win, the Argentinians who are among the elite teams of the world, disappointed me. When they were losing the number of brutal fouls that they committed speaks volumes to me, but in a negative light.
The Russians were wonderful and they were terribly saddened to be knocked out but I admired the Russians who were gracious in defeat.

Last night I saw England beaten by a superb Croatian team. Being English speaking I know the hopes of the English public; very little achieved in so many years. England has stopped hoping but ironically as they started to hope, Croatia dashed their hopes once again. This time I admired the English for swallowing their disappointment and still supporting their own team, even in defeat. I have seen that same spirit for their supporters who support their local team, even if there are no accolades. I suppose that is one of the reasons why the Aussie cricket supporters called the English supporters the “Barmy Army”; guys who travel a long way to watch their team get clobbered by a dominant Australian cricket team.

I also admire the Japanese philosophy in particular. Courageously battle to the bitter end, even if there is no prospect of victory. I love watching some of their game shows on television; how the competitors battle on despite getting wiped out. Their audiences admire the courage and tenacity of the competitors.

It stands in stark contrast to many South Africans who just have to support the winning team. They hop from supporting one team to another. It is a pity as they will never know the intense excitement if their team one day puts a good performance together to beat a stronger team.

When I was a small kid, I used to get taken along to see the local soccer team of East London, taking on the more powerful teams of the other bigger cities. My primary interest was to get a hot pie and a cool drink at halftime. I think our team was called East London United. This was still in the old Apartheid days where teams were not multiracial. The local soccer team had a forward with the name of Alan Gamiet (I think; this was back in the 1960’s). He was so enthusiastic but there were quite a few occasions where he had an open goal to score against and he used to blast the ball wide. The whole crowd used to groan in frustration, but we never stopped supporting the lads. There was one time that Alan scored, the most spectacular of goals. He was at the right hand corner of the penalty box and he kicked a bicycle kick that went into the top left corner of the goal to score to the astonishment of the locals. We always applauded the opponents who mostly beat our local team. Teams from the mists of time past – Germiston Callies, Lusitania, Highlands Park, Arcadia Shepherds, Hellenic and Cape Town City. Cape Town City used to get the old English internationals to play for them, I can still remember Alan Ball and how fast he was, also Bobby Charlton played for them in a game or two and I remember the accuracy of his passes. I still remember the respect in my Dad’s voice when he spoke about them. Such a long time ago…

(when I saw him he had no hair!)

I used to play table tennis with a good friend, but he hated losing and was a dreadful example. His motto when playing was, “show me a good loser and I will show you a loser!”. Hmmmm.

I no longer watch the Tour de France; Lance Armstrong was my hero but he was exposed as a cheat. It is too painful for me to watch nowdays.

This past week I saw Federer losing to a South African, Kevin Anderson. His conduct was marvellous to me. Despite desperately wanting to win, he lost after a marathon match. I saw some pictures of Roger walking off the court with his arm around his opponent with a smile. Being gracious in such difficult circumstances is not easy and I admire Roger’s character.

To me that is the true hero, not necessarily a winner on the stage of sport, but in life he is a great winner.