Professional sport vs Amateur Sports Issues

“Professional sport demands that winning is a top priority – commercial sport for ‘also-rans’ would be very difficult to come by in a harsh business world ” Galigan 2000

Discuss whether the concepts of fair play and sportsmanship still exist in global games. In this essay I intend to, outline certain terms and phrases in the question and quote that have been given, argue or back the quote that is given and answer the question with reference to sporting events. There are three different words that I would like to define.

Also-rans… :

An also-ran is some one who runs the race but has no hope of winning; they consistently come last or close to last in every race. They never get a podium position. They only run/race because they enjoy it, or to give their country status. An example of an also-ran is a sprinter from Yugoslavia called Slobodan Spasic. He races in each championship 100m, but has never placed higher than 6th in a heat of 8.

Also-rans seem to usually come from poorer, smaller countries that cannot fund for a large winning sports academy.

Sportsmanship… :

Sportsmanship is “The intention to compete within the framework of the rules and the intended spirit of the rules. ” This would be playing to your own best ability without using any performance enhancing drugs, any special enhancing blood doping techniques or anything that would leave you liable to being banned if you got caught. Gamesmanship… : Gamesmanship is “The intention to compete to the limit allowed by the rules and beyond, if it is achievable without a penalty.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified

Proficient in: Culture

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

” A prime example of this is runners who take steroids to increase muscle density and mass, but try to hide the steroids they have taken with more drugs that make it seem as if everything is ok. With global advertising companies and markets, now virtually ruling the world they can control who makes it and who doesn’t in the case of sport. If a company backs a sportsperson enough they will become famous and be at the height of the sport. However, if a company decides not to back a player/sportsperson for any reason, it would seem likely that they would not get recognised in the global sports world.

Competitors that we hear about normally are the ones who are the best, can run the fastest or can score the most goals. This is because they have been backed by so many companies to succeed. Sportsmanship as stated above is the intention to compete within the framework of the rules and the intended spirit of the rules. A good example of a sport and team that do this very well is Rugby and the World Cup winning England Rugby team. Rugby is a sport that prides itself on being tough and hard but at the same time being fair.

As the old saying goes “Football is a gentleman’s game played by thugs and Rugby is a thugs game played by gentleman. ” All rugby teams are expected to play hard, but to play with a huge amount of sportsmanship. Yes there are a number of little spouts of violence now and then but it is totally understandable due to the assertiveness and level of harsh bodily contact needed to play the game. During the 2003 world cup the England Rugby team came under some heavy abuse from the rest of the nations competing. Still, they competed, and fought off all others to become champions, they didn’t retaliate or lash out with violence.

They didn’t use the press to abuse other teams, they played they’re own style of rugby and won the world cup. This is a prime example of sportsmanship in today’s sporting environment. My point is that yes fair play and sportsmanship do exist but only in some sports, in which the players have been brought up top abide by the rules and follow the referee’s decision. In some sports i. e. Football however, this level of sportsmanship is rarely seen. With players diving to receive penalties, arguing with the referee and generally acting around the limit of the rules football is no longer a sport full of sportsmanship.

Football has swung more towards the way of the new term Gamesmanship. Running is a sport that I have mixed views about. It is highly committed to clamping down on users of performance enhancing drugs, but the trainers of the competitors have do much access to illegal drugs that are being newly made every day that it is hard for the governing body to keep up. Obviously not all the runners use illegal drugs, but I would imagine that the amount who do is more than we hear about.