Sport, Society & Me

According to Eitzen, there are five paradoxes are sport that make it significant in U.S. Society. These Paradox's outlined in his 2006 book, Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myth and Paradoxes of Sport  are as follows:

1. Sport, a seemingly trivial pursuit, is important. It mirrors the human experience
2. Sport mirrors society in other profound ways, it shares with the larger society the basic elements and expressions of bureaucracy, commercialization, racism, sexism, homophobia, greed, exploration of the powerful over the powerless, alienation and ethnocentrism. American sport embodies American values
3. Sport combines spectacle with drama, excellence and clarity
4. Sport is transcendent
5. There is the human desire to identify with something greater than oneself. 

The importance of sport in today's society can be summed up by the fact that more people watch the Super Bowl nationally, than vote in presidential elections. But, America's infatuation with sport doesn't stop there. American athletes are not only among the best paid professionals in the country, but most widely recognized, often as heroes and role models.  

Perhaps the most accurate paradox made by Eitzen is his fifth point, that there is the human desire to identify with something greater than oneself. For fans, this means dressing up in their team's colors, attending games, yelling profanities at the other team, and bonding with those who share the same allegiance. Fans identify themselves as part of the team by using phrases such as "Did you see how we did last night?", or " We're going to the championship!". For athletes, this is being an individual playing for a team, working and scarfing together to reach a common goal. Sport is the at the heart of many conversations, reading material, leisure activity, and discretionary spending. Humans instinctively want to feel apart of something bigger than oneself, and sport is a means for humans to do so. 

As an athlete, a fan and a sport management major, sports consumes a large part of my life. It is something I do recreationally and competitively. It is something I watch for entertainment and leisurely discuss with friends. It is the subject which I choose the study, and will (hopefully) eventually become a part of my future career (fingers crossed for the second semester senior over here). As an athlete,  I've competed in basketball, volleyball, bowling, track and field, cross country and ice hockey. But above all, my heart always belonged in the water. I started competitive swimming when I was 6 and didn't stop until I was 18.  I had always identified myself as a swimmer, it was a key part of my identify and dictated many different aspects of my life. In high school,  I joined our school's water polo team and firmly believe that the experiences I shared with teammates and coaches in the water have shaped me into who I am today. Our coach groomed us to have certain values, respect one another, and love each other like family, because we all shared these ideals instilled in us from our coach, we remain good friends today and will for a long more time to go.

While always a quick swimmer, when my water polo coach passed away my senior year of high school, I decided that I would want to continue to play water polo in college, despite getting more swimming scholarships (I even scored a couple of bowling scholarships too, bet you didn't even know those existed). My small size doesn't make me the ideal water polo player, but I've definitely had a lot of passion. Unfortunately passion can only go so far when you have a coach from hell ( shout out if you know who she is), and a bum shoulder. The combination of the two lead to an unfortunate end of my competitive water polo career, but has allowed me to find new joy in open water swimming, hiking and yoga.

Because sports has been a huge part of my life, I believe that the lessons I've learned from competing, and the values instilled within me from my coaches will continue to affect the decisions I make long after my last race.

References
Eitzen, D.S (2006). Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport (2nd Ed.). Oxford, Rowman & Littlefield: Chapter 1