Just yesterday, I walked by a soccer field with some young kids playing a game. They were using a mini-goal, parents were standing around, their gear didn't fit very well, etc. But they were having a blast.
And it occurred to me that this is what real sports looks like. Just playing a game, having fun.
In that moment, all the hyper-athleticism, hyper-competition, money, etc. of modern sports just seemed so ... absurd? Perverse?
Anyway, it just felt a bit parallel to this article. It seems like there's a lot of human experience that is better when it's not some ultra-refined extreme version of itself.
And why do we celebrate the fact that 3 human beings that are running 100m at full speed and coming perhaps 0.1s of each other at the end line should be hierarchized in gold / silver / bronze? This is stupid and anti-sports
Human beings capable of such feat are just equally as good as each other, there is no hierarchy
Why the arbitrary 0.1s? Why not 1s? Or 10s? Because that way I would run as fast as the the world record holder.
In its core, competitive sport is defined by the ability to differentiate the best from the next to best. It's obvious that as a species we value those who can perform with the highest marks, it's neither stupid nor anti-sports.
When we arrive at some values that are so low than just looking at which track they started from, which brand of shoes they wear, what was the weather condition, would completely change the result, then yes, it is stupid to maker a hierarchy which has no real meaning
I play in a pool league, and by far, the teams I look forward to playing are the ones that are getting mediocre results but really using the sport as a pretense to have a fun mates night out. You get the teams putting lots of effort into technique and matchplay as though it's the most important thing. Do you want to be the best arbitrary group of six players in the local town, or do you want to connect to other people in your community with a backdrop of light competition?
And it occurred to me that this is what real sports looks like. Just playing a game, having fun.
In that moment, all the hyper-athleticism, hyper-competition, money, etc. of modern sports just seemed so ... absurd? Perverse?
Anyway, it just felt a bit parallel to this article. It seems like there's a lot of human experience that is better when it's not some ultra-refined extreme version of itself.