{"id":165,"date":"2012-08-15T13:10:45","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T13:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/?p=165"},"modified":"2021-06-08T13:11:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T13:11:48","slug":"take-part-win-or-win-at-all-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/08\/15\/take-part-win-or-win-at-all-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Part, Win or Win at all Costs?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have loved watching the London Olympics \u2013 both at the Olympic Stadium itself and in front of my TV. There have been numerous remarkable human achievements which will inspire and motivate others both in sport and other endeavours. I have found the joy of watching people achieve lifelong ambitions very emotional, as have been the reactions of some of those who have not achieved what they wanted to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a lot of pressure to win \u2013 the amount of time the athletes have invested in preparation, justification for the funding received and to be seen as \u2018the best\u2019 being just three. But how far should an athlete go to win?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picture a continuum \u2013 a straight line with \u2018fair play\u2019 at one end and \u2018unfair play\u2019 at the opposite end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one end of the continuum, we have Timo Boll the German table tennis player who was awarded a point because his opponent\u2019s return supposedly missed the table \u2013 but Timo saw that it had shaved the side. He calmly explained this to the umpire and asked for the point to be awarded to his opponent. Apparently, he received the loudest applause of the day for this gesture \u2013 but he lost the match and his Olympics were over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the other end of the spectrum we have people taking performance enhancing drugs which are outlawed, which is clearly wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving along my continuum and slightly further towards the middle we have the badminton pairs who were playing each other and both teams attempted to lose the match \u2013 and this happened in two matches.   They were disqualified by their Federation <\/a>for \u201cnot using one\u2019s best efforts to win a match\u201d and \u201cconducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.\u201d And so their Olympics were over.  Not as clear cut as drugs cheats, perhaps, but clearly against the rules within their sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now to the grey area \u2013 and let\u2019s look at \u2018Team GB\u2019. I was watching the rowing final for the Lightweight Double Skulls when one of the rower\u2019s seats broke soon after the start. He waved the seat in the air to alert the umpire because there is a rule which states that if there is a breakage within the first 100 metres, the race can be restarted with the breakage having been rectified.  The rule is a bit of an anachronism as it was apparently introduced to deal with wooden rows that sometimes broke early in the race due to the force of the early strokes \u2013 they don\u2019t use wooden rows any longer, but the rule is still in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Steve Redgrave was commentating and as soon as it happened, he said that the rower needed to show the broken seat to the Umpire and, \u201c\u2026 if it wasn\u2019t broken then make sure it is broken \u2026\u201d by the time the Umpire got to their boat.  John Inverdale, the co-commentator, tried to retrieve the situation by subtly suggesting to him that he might have been trying to say something slightly different, but Sir Steve\u2019s statement had been very clear. The pair went on to claim the Silver Medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving to the Velodrome, the British team got themselves in a bit of hot water \u2013 or lukewarm water at the very least \u2013 with one of their tactics<\/a>.  In the a Men\u2019s Team Sprint heat Philip Hindes wobbled as he set off against France, so didn\u2019t get a very good start. His response was to deliberately crash his bike to get a restart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hindes told reporters that team tactic was, \u201c\u2026 if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart.\u201d He added, \u201cI just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really,\u201d By the time of the Press Conference, the official line was that he had lost control of his bike.  The team won the restarted heat and went on to win the Gold Medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The points made by the individuals in both cases are interesting as they were said in the \u2018heat of the moment\u2019 \u2013 at points when both were emotionally involved in what was happening, and so likely to be less guarded, but perhaps giving a more honest insight into how these teams operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ethos in these examples appears to be to use the rules, but not in ways in which they were intended. Where does this sit on the Continuum of Fair Play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cycling and Rowing were our most successful sports in terms of medal returns. Is it partly because these participants and coaches adopt this \u2018aggressive\u2019 use of the rules? And if they are awarded additional funding because of these successes, is it \u2018right\u2019, and will it encourage other athletes and sportspersons to adopt a similar approach? Is this an example of winning at all costs \u2013 apart from doping \u2013 and in doing so creating a less than level playing field?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Olympics came to a conclusion, Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England talked about <\/a>what the banking sector could learn from Team GB.  During his lesson on morality, he said, \u201cAs recent scandals have shown, banks could learn a thing or two about fair play from the Olympic movement. Again the financial sector has done us all a disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is necessary to motivate individuals.\u201d Perhaps he\u2019s right. But, on our continuum, how far are the previously mentioned examples of the uses of the rules in the rowing and cycling events from how some of our bankers have interpreted rules?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or is all this inherent in any system where reward \u2013 financial, medals or otherwise \u2013 is present? And should it be accepted as night follows day?  Is there an opportunity for learning and development providers to offer an event on Profitable Rule Interpretation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we like to think of society as being made up of lots of Timo\u2019s, but in reality the ethos is more about being less open and more manipulative than we want to admit to being?  Or perhaps the manipulative ones become winners, and that shapes society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or it could be that the comments I have quoted were, in fact, meant in a different way and have been misinterpreted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, do we \u2018play fair\u2019 as much as we like to think and make out we do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m reasonably clear on where I stand, but I would be interested in your views. I may change my mind having heard from others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have loved watching the London Olympics \u2013 both at the Olympic Stadium itself and in front of my TV. There have been numerous remarkable human achievements which will inspire and motivate others both in sport and other endeavours. I have found the joy of watching people achieve lifelong ambitions very emotional, as have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,16,27,29],"tags":[192,189,135,190,191,193],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}