Sportsmanship much?

Being an athlete, I like sports to be engaging and entertaining. With the many sports competitions that have been organized, more and more students have opportunities to represent their schools in these games. Sports and games among schools are always competitive so as to instill the spirit of determination among the students to strive for victory. Of course, the students train hard for many days just to perform their best during the competition where the eventual aim is to be champion. However, in any game, there can only be one champion, and some participants have to contend with losing in the competition. While it is important to achieve best in the competitions, students have to be able to take losses in their stride, as no one would be able to stay at the top forever. Thus, sportsmanship among students is more important than the end result of the game.

Though school sports are much less competitive than international sporting events, students have a tendency to think only of winning the game, where sporting values such as sportsmanship and friendship are rarely observed. Such can be seen in this case, where the brawl has taken place between the two schools. It is because of the lack of the display of vital values such as sportsmanship that has cause an after match brawl to take place. The implications of the brawl would be disastrous, where students were injured and being an athlete, I wonder if the coaches have instilled a sense of sportsmanship within the players where it is not winning that counts, but the process in pursuing that victory. Often, morality is forgotten where the individual only cares about winning.

A brawl is just a demonstration of how coaches are failing to channel the correct mindsets into their athletes where losing a game is perfectly alright and the right thing to do would be to congratulate the other team and not bash them up. Such is the failures to promote healthy competition within our student athletes where the actual meaning of the competition is diluted.

Also, I am more concerned for the safety measures that the schools take in ensuring that no casualties arise from the competition. There are many incidents that reflect on the mistakes the schools have neglected to rectify such as a student injuring his head in a judo match, a rugby player was hospitalized after foul play during the match and the student that died after a fatal kick in a taekwando competition. After such disastrous accidents that happen, many people are now afraid to continue in that sport for fear of ending up In the same fate as the people. As an athlete, I would like to encourage more students to take part in sports, but if the safety measures are not properly taken care of, how can we expect our students or their parents to participate in that sport without the fear of getting injured? We want to promote sports, and not shun people away from these sports that will be safe after safety measures are taken.

Hence, I think that for the true spirit of competition and sports to be made clear and enjoyable, the spirit of sportsmanship have to be understood and displayed where safety is also another major contributing factor to the overall enjoyment of the sport.