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JOLLY GOOD SPORTS: Winners Never Cheat & Cheaters Never Win, Except in the Real World, So What is Sportsmanship All About?
Maybe my favourite sports story of the year occurred last month at a triathalon in Santander. A British runner, James Teagle, was in third place, about 50m in front of the fourth-place runner, Diego Mentrida from Spain. But as he entered the stadium for the finish, Teagle instinctively turned to his right to take the final lap, and ran straight into a barrier. By the time he’d turned around and entered the finish chute, Mentrida had passed him, and the two began a sprint. Until Mentrida held up, and allowed Teagle to pass him at the finish. “When I saw James had missed the route, I just stopped,” Mentrida explained. “He deserved the medal”.
This moment of sportsmanship deservedly went viral. Much was made of it, because, when it comes to morality, we tend to amplify sports as if they were exemplars of human behaviour. But we use them as paradigms in part because the stakes in sport are relatively low; they are games, not life. Consider how badly “gamesmanship” transfers itself to real life. The term implies a subtle bending, rather than outright breaking, of the rules, but if we are measuring morality in sport we must surely realise that morality is judged by intent as much as by actual breakage. The English used to say “it’s not cricket”…
