Is winning important in sports?
It is without doubt that winning is very important in sports, be it for the athletes taking part or for the country or club they represent. The glory and honour of winning the games is testament to the hard work they had put in, which is usually followed by wealth and other prestiges. Athletes usually train for a long time just to participate in a few competitions in a year. In the National Football League(NFL), 32 teams compete in single elimination rounds. Ultimately, only one team remains and that is the champion. Every year that can only be one winner, and thirty-one losers.
Winning is important as it spurs on the athletes to perform the best they can. If they do not have to win, the athletes will not have any motivation to improve and defeat the other athletes. If athletes do not improve themselves, people will lose their interest in sports and the sports will become a stagnant sector of the lives of the athletes. Young athletes participate in sporting events to gain experience. For the Youth Olympic Game(YOG), countries will be sending their inexperienced young athletes onto the world stage, to compete, and gain new skills and experiences. Such that they can perform better and honour their country. Young athletes will also get a taste on how their older counterparts feel when they are representing their countries.
Sometimes when the athletes are used to winning, they turn to other ways to allow themselves to continue winning. Some of the athletes start taking performance enhancing drugs to boost their performance. The psychological damage from drug and hormonal changes can literally kill a man. Top US athlete Marion Jones has been discovered of taking drugs, all of her medals had been confiscated and her world records erased. This is a case of athletes who are unwilling to fail and will go to extreme lengths to ensure that they can continue winning.
However, this does not generalise all the athletes. It is actually only a small handful of the athletes who take drugs in order to win. Most of the athletes actually only rely on their own strengths. In international sporting events, athletes are tested for any sign of using drugs, most athletes pass the test. In sports, displaying sportsmanship is more important than winning. There have been various accounts of athletes displaying sportsmanship, but they did not necessary won the event. In 1936 Munich games, German athlete Luz Long won the silver in the long jump category. The champion, Jesse Owens did not clear his first two jumps, Luz taught him how to clear the jump. Jesse Owens went on to finish as the champion, while Luz Long only came in second.
In the Olympic games, taking part in it is the highest calling for any athlete in representing their country. There is no greater honour in it. Even if they did not manage to win anything, they are still proud as they have proven themselves.
When they take part in the events, they display the qualities of an athlete. Fairness in competitions is also very important. Athletes come together to compete on a level basis to determine on the strongest among them, it will be unfair for someone to cheat and ruin the hard work of other athletes who have trained hard and did not get the reward they righteously deserve. To compete fairly in sports is usually known as sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is the
• Full commitment to participation (e.g., showing up, working hard during all practices and games, acknowledging one’s mistakes and trying to improve)
• Respect and concern for rules and officials
• Respect and concern for social conventions (e.g., shaking hands, recognizing the good performance of an opponent)
• Respect and concern for the opponent (e.g., lending one’s equipment to the opponent, agreeing to play even if the opponent is late, not taking advantage of injured opponents)
• Avoiding poor attitudes toward participation (e.g., not adopting a win-at-all-costs approach, not showing temper after a mistake, and not competing solely for individual prizes)
Excerpt from wikipedia (sportsmanship)
Thus, in conclusion, it is decided that winning is NOT everything in sports, even though it is very important in sports, as if you do not want to win, what is the point of taking part in the competition in the first place.
BY: richen
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|11:21 PM|