Sport: Recreation or Competition?
There is a fundamental problem
with the way we approach sport in this Country.
As I write this, it’s August
2024. It’s the off-season for a variety
of sports. Football, Rugby, Cyclocross -
sports that are important to me. Some I
have participated in and some I wish I could participate in. We have also just had the Olympics. I have written before about how these
Olympics have not gripped me anywhere near as much as other games have, as well
as how vitriolic so much of the media coverage has been, particularly
surrounding a certain Algerian gold-medallist boxer. These feelings have not subsided, and the
simmering feeling of disillusionment with Sport that I had prior to these games
has only festered further.
This is something I have
discussed with my partner a great deal.
She is formerly a professional criterium cyclist, and for over a decade
of her life cycling, in many disciplines, has dominated her free time. She has always said that she did it for the
love of it, even when she was competing professionally in the US.
I wonder how many other
sportspeople can say the same thing?
The answer, I think, is yes. This piece of writing is my thoughts on why
that is, but equally why there exists a dissonance between the participants of
sport and those who make decisions about sport.
I believe the majority of athletes participate
in sport because it is fun. During my
time in the Navy, anyone I knew who participated in sport within the RN did it
for the love of it (1). I
haven’t experienced a working environment since then that has been so
encouraging of people using their free time to actively work on their own
physical abilities and sportsmanship.
The ethos of participating in sport is much the same as the Navy’s core
values, that of Courage, Commitment, Discipline, Respect, Integrity, and
Loyalty. And like the Navy, many people
participate in sport for the sheer joy of it.
Even with all the stress of having to transition in service and the
impact it had on my naval training, I still count my two years in the Navy as
the best of my life and I remain extremely hopeful that I will be able to go
back and finish what I’d started.
When I was in the Navy though,
whenever we had grassroots sports afternoons, there was always the feeling that
they were trying to get people interested in playing sport for the Navy because
that means us winning the interservice championship competitions is that bit
more likely. Before I left the RN, I
joined Royal Navy Cycling and I remain a member, and I would love to be able to
take part in more active participation.
I am also a member of the Navy Triathlon Club, and it’s been my dream
since I began running properly in 2018 to complete a triathlon of some form
eventually.
Very few people enter a triathlon
with the view of winning it. In every
given triathlon in the UK there will be a certain number of elite level
participants who are either competing for points or treating it as a training
exercise to get them ready for tougher competition. The vast majority of people who enter
triathlons do so because it is fun.
Winning is never on the cards.
They may want to simply be able to say: “I’ve done a triathlon”. It may just be for bragging rights in their
workplace. Or it may be that they’re
competing against themselves, only seeking to try and go 10 minutes faster than
they managed last year. Not everyone
seeks to be competing at the next Olympics for Team GB because for all but
maybe two dozen competitors, it’s totally impossible.
So, what is the rationale then
behind a complete blanket ban on trans participation in any form of competitive
event in so many of the sports I was once passionate about? One by one, in the nearly 24 months since I
first began exploring my own gender perception, the sports I held dear have
decided that my very existence in the sport is a threat to fairness. Fundamentally, this is due to a key problem
in the way we perceive sport in this country.
From the Premier League of Football, to Premiership Rugby, to the
Olympics, even down to county level competition, the onlooker always only sees
and remembers the winner. History only remembers champions. So, to any non-participant, the only reason
for a trans woman to want to participate in Sport is to try to beat so-called “biological
women” and win. Successive reputable
studies have shown that there’s nothing unfair or unsafe in trans women
participating in sport alongside cis women, but scientific discussion often
falls on deaf ears, so I won’t labour that point here.
Fundamentally, all I want to do
is race my bike with my friends, or to fulfil my lifelong goal of competing in
a triathlon. I have never been
interested in elite level sport; even as a teenager I was never willing to put
in the hours in the gym or spend the time at the local field practicing ball
handling to get good enough at Rugby to do county trials, and this was the
sport I played the longest. I played
rugby solidly for five years and many of my teammates ended up at much higher
levels of competition than grassroots club level rugby. What I find myself wondering now is, were
they playing for the joy of the game, or were they playing out of some
bull-headed idea that they might be the next Courtney Lawes, the next Johnny
Wilkinson, or the next Owen Farrell?
When I was a child, it felt like every boy in the class wanted to be the
next top footballer. Our society places
these athletes, the gladiators of today, on such a pedestal that it’s almost
natural for young boys to seek to be like them.
I am never going to be quick
enough to qualify for elite level triathlon or bike racing. I am probably not even strong enough to be
competitive in women’s rugby at a club level, because I’ve seen the standard of
athleticism there just from who I get to talk to in the gym, and it’s
high. It’s very high. Sport is inherently unfair and what attracted
me to Rugby when I was a teenager was the fact that I could use the body type
God had given me, which wasn’t suited to running long distances, and play a
sport where that was an asset. Tactics
is what ensures that those who are the best skilled are the ones who win. It’s not just about standard of fitness, it
is so much more about level of skill and coordination within a team. This is what makes the treatment of trans
women athletes even more perplexing.
The UK has one of the highest
obesity rates in the developed world, at 26.4%.
I believe that a big part of this is due to this perception in the UK
that Sport = Competition, and nothing else.
We have to get back to the idea that sport is fun and participation
should made as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, as opposed
to finding ways to exclude people.
People in the UK are nowhere near as active as they should be to balance
the overwhelmingly processed western diet.
Car centrism is a major part of this but participation in sport is also
a big factor, and the fact is that most people spend their non-working hours
totally sedentary. I’ve spent a
significant amount of time trying to persuade people like my mum that what
would be fantastic for her and her health is to go and join a women’s over 40s
netball team, and there is one of them in the town where I grew up. These bits of participation rarely get
sufficient funding to exist however, because at that age group, none of the
women participating will be considering elite level sport.
Until we get beyond this very
British idea that the only reason to participate in sport is to win, I don’t
believe the policy pursued by many sporting organisations will change. Sport is something that ought to exist to
provide enjoyment, to provide healthy competition, and a little escapism from
everyday life. When everything on our
phones is telling us what to feel and what to think, when capitalism has
branded every person as a consumer, it is as if our only purpose in life is to
be a cog in the machine, to earn a meagre wage to enable us to spend money on
stuff we don’t hugely need. Sport
provides a much-needed vent for all of that pent-up frustration with life. The thrill of a bike race or the exhilaration
of a successful tackle is sometimes all you need to feel like you have a reason
to exist. In my personal circumstances
it feels utterly cruel that upon reaching a stage in my life where I have the
time and good enough mental health to compete in sport, I am told by
apparatchiks who’ve never met me that I am not allowed to compete, that I am a
problem to be made to go away, because to them its not about having some fun
and keeping healthy, its about winning.
Until we get over this fundamentally broken aspect of the British
condition, it will continue to be a curse on the fight for equality, our
collective health, and the wellbeing of a nation.
(1) I
feel obliged to mention the additional active incentive that the Navy will very
often give athletes time off work to go represent the Navy in Sport, or if
you’re a reservist, getting paid to represent the Navy in sport.
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