Essay question: “What is important is not winning, but taking part.” How realistic is this attitude in the world of sports today? (1997)

In my opinion, this attitude is not realistic at all. In today’s context, where sports have become so interlinked with money, winning has become integral for most people in sports. People are motivated by greed for not only the amount of money gained through winning competitions, but also the fame and recognition achieved.

There is always a grand prize for every competition, and this grand prize can go up to millions of dollars for heavily sponsored competitions such as the Soccer English Premier League. Moreover, winning competitions brings fame which leads you to advertising deals and much more money. In addition, for international sports such as the Olympic Games, winning brings glory to the sportsmen’s countries and is sometimes used as a means to compare the power or strength between countries.

Commercialisation of sports has brought about great emphasis on winning. Sportsmen now play for the money that it brings them and for the hope of becoming millionaires. For example, the famous soccer player David Beckham earned near 6 million dollars a year, not to mention an additional average of around 17 million dollars from advertising and sponsorship. With so much money on the line, who can blame the players for wanting to win competitions? What’s more, the sportsmen are not the only ones who want to win. Punters and gamblers who bet heavily on matches or players want to win too.

Moreover, most sports require long sessions of tough and vigorous trainings, and the main reason or rather the only reason of these trainings is to sharpen their skills to ultimately win the competition. Although sportsmanship is greatly emphasized in schools today, and the phrase “Failure is the mother of success” is commonly heard, who wouldn’t like success at the first shot? Kiasuism- the fear of losing out, in Singapore has proved winning to be of high importance.

Certainly there are things to gain through the process, however, all these situations have made it impossible to see winning as a significant aspect in the world of sports today. It is therefore unrealistic to think that participation is more important than competition.