Sport means coming together as a community, a nation, or internationally. Without fair competitions between athletes, teams, or nations, sports would not exist.
Yes, sport is about fighting, but even when losing a fight, it's still just sports. A war is putting a lot of things in perspective and I want to use this very sad time right now to show what sports can do for peace.
Sports was my life as an athlete and still is, just from a different perspective. What I love about sports is that athletes, coaches, and other team members are coming together to compete with or against each other. Usually, the fight is fair, athletes follow the rules and come together again after crossing the finish line - sometimes even for a fun, big, international party.
Everyone, who doesn't follow the rules will be caught sooner or later (hopefully), is losing respect, and is definitely not welcome in the international community anymore. Someone, who was clearly not playing fair or not following the rules, will end up with a penalty. The nice part about it: Most of the time, it's pretty simple to just follow the rules.
Biathlon is coming with lots of rules and most of them are for safety since we are armed with rifles and ammunition. Changing shooting lanes in a race, without putting the rifle back on our back will lead to disqualification. This kind of rule-breaking is not something other athletes will be mad about, as long as nothing bad happens because of it. If something bad would happen doing that, it would hurt the whole sport.
When it comes to cheating with purpose and not playing fair, this is definitely not accepted by the big community. Even when someone is coming back after being done with quite a penalty, like not racing for two or more years, this athlete will still have a hard time being accepted and will forever be suspected. And how much fun would it be winning, when no one wants to celebrate with the winner?
And now let's put it in perspective. Sports are not worth it to cross guidelines. Those are extra laid out to make sure everyone knows what to do and what not to do. Only in this way competitions can be fun, fair, and exciting.
When sport is our life, we need to ask ourselves what kind of sports world we want to live in. It's a world where athletes, coaches, technicians, physiotherapists, organizers, volunteers, fans, and so many more are coming together. All sorts of nations, backgrounds, stories, languages, cultures, and characters compete against each other, but also to connect and celebrate.
Sport is a lot about respect, it is about values, community, and peace! When done right, it's a perfect world to live in.
When we personally know people of other countries, people we are having fun with, we travel with, even battle with, we create a connection and connection creates peace. Sports provide an environment where peace can exist, of course in a larger world, there are many factors that need to work cohesively to achieve the ultimate peace. My heartfelt wishes to all of those who are touched and affected by war.
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