Competitive Spirit

     Sports should teach people to play the rules of the game and to accept defeat gracefully. The commercial, competitive spirit has taken over the game, and now, as in politics, the aim is to bend the rules as far as possible in order to WIN and humiliate the loser.
     I was sad when, after the American beat the Chinese women's team in the world soccer championship, the sweet Chinese women were not invited to participate in the final parade. They returned home feeling humiliated.
     Now the defeat of the All Blacks has led to unseemly and noisy crowing by the French cock, and despair by New Zealanders. Their anger was such that the coach resigned. This humiliation has become common among coaches of losing teams. Spectators should be ashamed that they push coaches to quit in disgrace.

Ronald Hilton - 11/5/99