Text 3. Keep Politics out of sport

The organizers of international athletics meetings, however loudly they may reject "political interference", have long organized such games on an overtly political basis by construing them not as a competition between free individuals, but between representatives of nation states.

In principle there is no reason why international athletic events should not involve multinational teams of Methodists, divorcees, employees of General Motors, monks, lawyers, freemasons or homosexuals - but they do not. People are only allowed to run, throw or jump for a State with a flag, a national anthem and the other paraphernalia of a political territorial unit. This is hardly surprising, since the skills on display are of no value except to the military establishment of the State, who still respect these archaic military techniques and virtues.

An athlete who throws a javelin must have in mind that it is designed to skewer, impale and disembowel an enemy soldier. Otherwise no adult could ever take seriously the childish antics of javelin throwers, fencers, shot-putters or sprinters, which would otherwise be on a par with egg-and-spoon and sack races.

The main value of these anachronistic military tasks is that they indirectly indoctrinate the male youth of a country with the vital martial virtues of patriotism, blind obedience and loyalty, and the physical courage to commit aggression.

In a world where disputes between nations are settled by force of arms, male participation in athletics is a regrettable necessity, but female athletes are merely a grotesque parody of their masculine counterparts. We should regard female hurdlers or caber-tossers with the same horror we feel at the idea of women being employed as combat troops.

In the days before rigorous sex tests were applied, there were few sights more repellent than that of the Eastern block on the sports tracks of the world; some of these unfortunate ladies were on occasions even force-led with male hormone pills to assist muscular development. If feminists had any sense, they should be protesting against this callous forcing of women into a male mould. Instead, they are likely to demand government funding to try and produce women who will run, throw, hop-skip-and-jump as well as men.

The flaw in their case is that true equality demands unisex events where women compete directly with men. It is true that the women would hardly ever win, but that it is just too bad. We do not have separate and special events for nations whose people are naturally short, slender or feeble - there is no special low high jump for pygmies or Welshmen, no 10 yard start for heavy-calved white men running in the 100 metres.

We rightly reject the very idea as racist. Why then are there separate and very much second-class events for women? Why are women debarred from events such as boxing and wrestling? The answer is not one that will please the egalitarians, for it resides in the fact that women are specifically designed for bearing children.

The athlete, then, is either a potential soldier or an actual clown, and only the dignity of the former role can rescue him - and I mean him - from the obloquy reserved for the latter. Fortunately the periodic fuss and farce over the Olympic Games has suggested a solution, for it has made everyone conscious of the essentially military and political nature of sport.

The time has come to make this explicit by replacing traditional athletics with overtly military exercises and abolishing female participation altogether. What is needed instead is some form of minimally-lethal ritual clash between each nation's elite military or police units.

I am sure it is not beyond the wit of the world's military staff colleges to design active and competitive Kriegspielen that would be of value to them, no more dangerous than boxing or motor racing and thoroughly good television. We can make a start right away by transforming our Minister of Sport into a Junior Minister at the Ministry of Defence.

TASK

Discuss the following:

Ø Your attitude towards winning at all costs.

Ø Sport divides more than it brings together.

Ø There’s too much sport on TV.

Ø Sport is of no benefit to humanity.

Ø Violence at football matches is inevitable.

Ø The use of animals in sport.

Ø Sport which involve physical violence between contestants.

Ø The main problems facing the international sport today.

Ø Politics and sport should always be kept separate.

DISCUSSION

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