The nature of sport

The thwack of leather on willow, the crunch as a body is tackled, the crowd’s roar reverberating around a stadium, the joy, emotion, feeling, wonderment, glory of sport. A billion people slavishly follow every kick, goal and red card of a World Cup, passionate supporters take to the streets to celebrate their national team’s victory, the non-victorious mourn ‘their’ loss until the next opportunity to avenge defeat. Philosophers, poets, fans and academics have each tried to explain the intrinsic appeal of sport, to distil its essence, yet it remains seductively elusive, beyond lyrical and analytical efforts to define its ‘true’ nature. On a base level, sport is no more than a banal physical pastime, where bodies are set against one another to secure territory, take possession or outperform each other, or they compete only against themselves, challenging and conquering nature in the pursuit of increasingly extreme and amazing feats. But none who have known the highs and lows of competition would ever agree that sport is little more than actively passing the time. For many, sport means so much more. Although definitions of the nature of sport remain tantalisingly beyond

reach, an extensive set of ideologies circulates in contemporary society that nevertheless professes to explain inherent truths about sport. Young children are inducted into the concept of fair play, adolescents are encouraged to play not just by the rules but according to the spirit of the game, elite athletes are reminded that they are role models who offer moral guidance to the public, and the Olympic Games marks itself as an avenue for achieving international peace and understanding. Sport is thought to offer a range of lessons that can be transferred to other aspects of a participant’s life. It is supposed to teach social and moral behaviours, to impart a sense of commitment, discipline, dedication and sacrifice, and to strengthen character and fortitude in the face of adversity (Verroken 2003; Jenkins 2002; Butcher and Schneider 2001; Reid 1998). These noble characteristics remain largely uncontested outside the hallowed halls of the academy, and certainly in the public eye, attempts to interrogate and expose the ideological foundations of sport are met with scepticism. It is, however, important to acknowledge

that the physical act of, for example, hitting a ball, tackling a player or riding a wave are not intrinsically meaningful beyond the confines of the game or activity, and any effort to solicit meaning explicitly reveals the ideological precepts that are inscribed onto sport from without. Yet modern sport has, in essence, come to signify more than mere recreation, and the philosophical significance attributed to sport differentiates it from other physical activities. Whilst the idealised version of sport seems to be well entrenched, there

are, nevertheless, concerns that the essence of sport is constantly under threat in a world where victory and financial gain seem to be more highly prized than playing fairly for the love of the game. Although commercialism and professionalism have influenced sport markedly, the influence of various technologies is often held responsible for chipping away at the spirit of sport and undermining its philosophical foundations. These anxieties are provoked by a ‘technophobia’ that values ‘natural’ products more than human-made or artificial exemplars (Barilan andWeintraub 2001), and are reinforced by the mythology of sport as a purely natural enterprise. Physical recreations are imbued with moral and social meanings that derived, in part, from Romantic conceptions of nature and its restorative potential. Furthermore, the Victorian virtues of ‘fair play’ and an emerging scientific belief in the ‘natural’ body as an immutable biological category served to entrench hostilities towards technological interventions, particularly those that sought to enhance athletic capacity. For this reason, the ‘unnatural’, scientised or serious pursuit of athletic glory has traditionally sat uncomfortably with those who insist that sport celebrates the ‘natural’ athlete and his or her potential. Incorporating technological remedies into sport, to any degree, is thought to violate this ‘natural’ order and reveal that the ‘true spirit’ of sport is slowly dissipating in favour of an emphasis on the unabashed pursuit of performance objectives. The ingestion of performance enhancing drugs is regarded as perhaps the

clearest evidence that the spirit of sport is at risk, and is passionately labelled a ‘crime’ that ‘undermin[es] the very essence of sport’ (O’Leary 2001: 29). Doping, it is reasoned, disrupts the level playing field upon which sport is predicated and offers ‘unfair’ advantages to those who partake. It is thought to reduce the element of chance and uncertainty that is fundamental to sport, creating an ‘inevitable’ outcome where the doped competitor is assured of victory (Reid 1998). This, in turn, seemingly lessens the value of the contest as an accurate measure of the capacities of individual competitors. Those who take a ‘chemical shortcut’ have their characters and morality questioned, are thought to lack discipline and courage, and are regarded as incapable of respecting ‘natural capacities and limitations’ (Reid 1998). It is apparent that not only the health and well-being of athletes are jeopardised by the presence of illicit performance technologies, but the very moral fibre of sport itself is at risk. Sport is, of course, replete with technological advancements, as evidenced in

the booming sports technology industry that designs everything from cutting-

edge apparel and equipment through to high tech playing surfaces and improved safety items. Each of these advances are designed, in part, to offer an athletic environment that allows the athlete to perform unimpeded. Yet, the introduction of new technologies is closely monitored to ensure the integrity of sport is protected. Training regimes, improved equipment and nutritional substances, for example, are scrutinised to ensure they do no more than merely facilitate performance by reducing external influences that may obscure or hinder the true capacity of an athlete. In this sense, the competitor’s physical ability should be reflected in, and measured by, their final result; however, assessing whether or not technologies inappropriately enhance performance is difficult, and the merits of various innovations are contested by sporting authorities, athletes, coaches and the public at large. The current controversy that surrounds the athletic application of hypoxic, or altitude, chambers attests to the fact that debates about technologies are never straightforward (Levine 2006; Kutt 2005). To understand why technology is conceived as a threat to the sanctity of

sport and its philosophical foundations, this chapter initially examines the ‘spirit’ of sport, locating its origins in nineteenth-century constructions of Muscular Christianity and amateurism. As a ‘carefree’ and ‘joyous’ expression of humanity, sport was regarded as an antidote to the twin threats of industrialisation and urbanisation, which were thought to jeopardise the health and hygiene of not only individuals but of society at large. Sport, in theory, offered a direct link to the natural realm, away from the confines of the city and the filth in the streets, and was inscribed with many of the Romantic qualities that were attributed to nature, particularly freedom and redemption. Nature, it was supposed, offered not only a site of rejuvenation but possessed an inherent morality that could inspire and instruct human society, and through its close association with this ‘untouched’ realm, sport was consequently imbued with a similar purpose. This chapter thus locates the origins of the ethical and moral precepts that underpin sport within broader constructions of nature as a moral touchstone. Nature represented an uncorrupted site against which the technological advances of human society could be measured, and sport was similarly regarded as part of an authentic realm into which technology could, and should, not intrude. As such, this chapter suggests that the social construction of nature as immutable and ahistorical has considerable implications for the place and reputation of sport in contemporary society and particularly its relationship to technology.