The Question – The Power of Sport

Sport has had a mixed few years, while professional sport was not been stopped again following the first lockdown our ammeter sport has struggled to and in some cases struggled financially due to the pandemic. Covering this story has shown me how much we all depend on sport whether watching or taking part.

I cover F1, I enjoy it though it can be hard work, by no means I’m a professional but there’s a lot of research and day to day news you need to keep on top of. But when I’m commentating and noting the race and something dramatic happens its natural for your emotions and passion to take over.

Sport has a powerful effect; I see things like the Olympics and Paralympics as a uniting force. It’s a place where countries should be able to set aside differences and push each other hard for medals, but often the politics cannot be separated.

Historic sporting events like when England reached the semi-finals of World Cup, Sir Andy Murry going for Wimbledon titles or 2020s Eifel and Turkish GPs where Sir Lewis Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher. These are “where were you moments.”

I think more people tend to watch these big events as they attract your casual viewer, and that tends to be the thing that gets people talking. I am not a fan of football or rugby, but if England got to a final, I think I would watch that in the background while doing other things.

The last football game I remember watching the 2020 Euro final between England and Belgium was like a must-watch historic event. Those are the events I think are ones that tend to attract people who feel they need to witness these events.

The Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012 had at its peak 26.9m viewers and the closing ceremony making it into 8^th and 9^th the time on the list of most-watched events. The closing ceremony was also the most-watched programme that year and third on the all-time list.

I remember the 2014 Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Grand Prix, the build-up marked by anti-gay propaganda law, Russian involvement in Ukraine and then the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines MH17.

Sport mustn’t get involved in domestic affairs, but we cannot ignore them as 2020 proved which the Black Lives Matter movement. That can send a powerful message, we saw sports stars across the western world take a knee and show support for racial equality, as well as general equality.

Throughout this pandemic, many people have been unable to take part in sports or have been forced to take up sports like running or cycling and that does help partly with our mental health. But amateur team sports haven’t been allowed.

Sport also face challenging questions about going to places like India where poverty rates are high and places like Saudi Arabia where LGBT and Woman’s Rights don’t exist as such. But we need to understand these are for business reasons, my hope is we can find that balance.

But hopefully, by going to these countries, it starts a conversation about change, but making those changes and changing attitudes over time it improves the human rights. We all wished that sport and politics didn’t mix but it’s a fact that they do, and that will never change.

Sport in the developing world can be used to teach children English, Maths as well as the ethos of teamwork. Many of these stars may stand out like the stars, but there is a whole army of people behind them and the size of that team can be small or up to eight hundred people depending.

It’s also about giving everyone an active lifestyle, we can all play a role in taking part either by paying or watching sport. It’s not only good for physical health but mental health, for young people it teaches them really important life skills, I am not an expert in this but its what I’ve heard and read its teaches teamwork, communication and how to accept defeat.

Anya Shrubsole made her grandparents so proud, I am not going to name them out of respect. But, speaking to them over several years you can hear and feel how proud they are of her as well as other people connected to them it rubs off on you. I think having local stars can also drive interest in sport.

At its core sport needs to be competitive, reporting and watching this F1 season it has felt different after seven years of Mercedes dominance. Going into each weekend you have an idea of which team could have the edge, and it’s been more exciting both to watch and report on.

Sport is also important when it comes to rehabilitation, it trains muscle memory one of the first people to realise this was Ludwig Guttmann. The German doctor Sir Ludwig Guttman who fled the Nazi’s because he was a Jew, spent the war working first in Neurosurgery before the government asked him in 1943to establish the National Spinal Injuries Centre.

While working at the NSIC, it helped him to prove a long-running theory that sport was an important method of therapy for the rehabilitation of injured military personnel, helping them build up physical strength and self-respect.

In recent years we have seen before the pandemic here in the UK, coverage of parasport is limited, mainly focused on the Paralympics, World, European Athletics and Swimming Championships. But we don’t see like the Football and Rugby World Championship, these in my view need equal status.

Thinking back to the first lockdown and sport shutting down effectively overnight that was one of the strangest things, we are also used to live sport around the clock. This was the first time in seventy-five years, I think when sport just shut down overnight that was probably the one thing I thought wouldn’t happen with domestic sport in the way we saw in March 2020.

Reporting that week building up to the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, you could feel things starting to change with the pandemic. It was strange having no new sport, but broadcasters and sports got creative showing ‘memorable’ moments, whether creating things like best moments programming or full event replays.

This year, we have the Tokyo Paralympics followed weeks later by the World Para Swimming Championships. While the athletics have been postponed by a year, this is going to be a hugely busy year with four major events in fourteen months with Beijing in March 2022.

The figures in sport tend to become figures and celebrities in their own right, and then they have a powerful voice in society look at Marcus Rashford changing policy around free school meals and Sir Lewis on racial equality.

They only have the ability to do that because sport has given them, the platform now being established figures, they have less risk when they do speak out then are the start of their career.

You cannot have the impact without a platform, sporting figures have more impact when speaking about issues in society. They may be millionaires but they had to start somewhere, some of the most talented always rise to the top.

But on our local news, you hear about the unsung heroes, people who run clubs or try to engage underprivileged groups through sport. This often gives them opportunities to have fun, travel and develops life skills beyond sport and that is important for everyone’s development.

Sport has in my view the same amount of power as governments at international organisations, in shaping the societies we live in and its morals. However, it faces the challenge of not getting involved in politics, but the thing is I think that sometimes sport can’t stay out of questions being asked about human rights.

As a writer/journalist covering F1, I have learned that for sports there isn’t much money to be made in the traditional markets, but they still are very important for the soul of the sport. There needs to be a balance in tapping into new markets while retaining a foothold in the traditional markets.

Money talks, sponsors and high performing athletes get paid millions, while events funded by public money don’t have that much money have to operate like businesses to make money. They often have to pay fees to the event organisers, which in some cases have an exculpation clause meaning it goes up over time.

I have seen in F1 over the years with medium to small teams like Haas, Manor, Aston Martin (In previous names) need to employ drivers who can bring financial backing. It’s a reality we need to accept but it’s important to remember in any sport there is a need for money, even Sir Lewis Hamilton has sponsors and that’s partly because of the brand he has created around him which goes beyond F1.

Recently the death of Murray Walker gave me another thought, the power of sport needs someone who can convey the message clearly, guide you through and with passion, sometimes the odd gaff or in his case ‘Murrayism.’ This shows the importance of having a good commentator who can convey not only what’s happening, but their excitement which is past on to us the views.

In a world that has been increasingly divided over the last few years, reflecting on the Tokyo games I think it was something we all needed as it gave us something to enjoy together and talk about apart from the pandemic. It was for me nice to have something to watch in the day when the world needed it the most, as we all live through this pandemic.