At the inaugural celebration of the Laureus World Sports Awards in 1999, Nelson Mandela stated that, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair.” It is very similar, interestingly, to his well-known statement that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” We might understand how education can change the world but how exactly can sport do so?
No-one will question the fact that sport moves people; it touches the raw emotions of players, coaches, administrators, spectators and commentators alike. It energises people like nothing else to do extraordinary feats. Accordingly, sport has power, very definitely. It makes them do things they might not otherwise have done, to behave in ways they would not normally behave, for better of for worse. A calm, intelligent, articulate human can be transformed within thirty seconds of the whistle blowing at the start of a match into an aggressive, blinkered, irrational being. Such is the desperation to win that people will do anything, legal or otherwise to win, be that by cheating with drugs, over age players, feigning fouls or injuries. However, we may note that it is not sport that does that but competition; competition causes losing spectators to fight opposing fans, destroy property, berate opposing players, threaten referees. Players and spectators have been killed because of results. Equally in sport, as in society, there remains discrimination of all sorts (racial, gender, age). We must believe sport has the power to change all of that and more.
Another South African, businessman Johann Rupert, the Chairman of Richemont, echoed Mandela’s belief when he proposed that an organisation be created “based on the principle that sport can bridge the gaps in society and change the way people look at the world.” This was the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation whose vision statement is: “using the power of sport to end violence, discrimination and disadvantage, proving that sport can change the world”.
Mandela perhaps expanded on how this is possible in the quote above. Firstly, sport inspires people to take up sport and thus get fitter, more resolute and outgoing; it inspires people to believe that greater things are possible – think of how Leicester City’s astonishing Premier League title inspired millions! Think how Andy Murray inspired many to take up tennis. Think how our own Minister of Sport, Kirsty Coventry, has inspired thousands to try not just swimming but other sports as well, putting Zimbabwe very much on the world and Olympic map. Sport inspires people to do more.
Secondly, sport unites people in a way that nothing else does. Think how the 1995 Rugby World Cup, held in South Africa and won by South Africa, brought South Africans of all colours together to support the country in a way never witnessed before. Think how, after being on the brink of war, India and Pakistan relations improved through them playing each other at cricket. Competition may divide (as one has to win and one has to lose) but sport unites.
Thirdly, sport speaks to young people in a way they understand, and in so doing it helps them to understand much more than sport. Children with different languages can play sport together and know how each other feels. Sport helps us to understand much bigger issues than sport.
Sport also brings hope. The Laureus Foundation’s passion is based on a simple truth: whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever your background, sport can give you the chance to be a better person tomorrow than you are today. Becoming involved in sport can get people out of the vicious cycle of crime and violence and disease. It brings hope and purpose as well as pleasure. Andy Murray speaking out for equal treatment of male and female tennis players has given people hope.
So sport can change the world, for better or worse. If sport has the power to change the world for good, then we must invest in it heavily at school. We need to help the child change his own world and in so doing change the world at large. To do that, we have to change the way we do sport at school. Let us change the world, here in Zimbabwe, through sport at school, for good!
