THE SPORTING UNIVERSE, A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS AND DISCRIMINATION BY ALABO TEKENATE JUNIOR

Sport is a game or contest of physical activities engaged in for competition, Relaxation among other reasons. There are several sporting activities that the majority are not aware of, nor even consider as sports.

According to the world sports encyclopedia (2003), there are over 8,000 indigenous sports and sporting games in the world. These are further categorized into three based on the number of players. So we have individual, dual and team sports.

However, the number one sport and most popular amongst all is soccer.

Owing to the fact that sport is seen as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess, almost every and anything that shows skill can pass as a sport. A look at the list of sporting activities in the world shows that fishing and dancing are considered sports. Most of these are things done just for the fun of it, not necessarily because there is a price to be won. Thus, there is no limit to what can be considered as sports, so long as it shows a unique skill and it commands attention, it is good to go. This may be the reason why new sports are added to events like the Olympics almost every time it is hosted.

Sports as a unifying factor can not be overemphasized. A clear case would be Nigeria. Whenever the national team steps out, even if everyone is angry with the way the nation is, or the sports in the country are being handled, the national teams stands as a unifying factor for the nation. In a country like ours where religion and politics have divided us, sports seem to reunite us and remind us that there are no Muslims or Christians; It makes us forget that some of us are from the south and others from the north. At that point, there is no brutality but just hearts United as one nation.

If there was ever a case of discrimination, racial outbursts and so on in sports, it wasn't because of the sport, it may have been because of the individual's mindset. This is why such persons are either punished or rebuked. Even if none of this happens, the public never let such scene go without speaking out against such persons and what they did. This shows that the sporting universe does not look at language, race, colour, religion, just your skill.

Sports is seen as a tool and a common language that can be used to discover and develop skills and potential that can be transferred into everyday life and applied in practice. Its brings people from every phase of life.

Young people caught up in our society often lack self-confidence, motivation, self-discipline, family support, and indeed the soft skills required to manage their re-entry into the education system and start working towards a career, sports take these same people and turn them around. These people tend to become active and useful because discrimination is not found in this axis of life. This is why sports have over the years been incorporated into rehabilitation programs to help people express themselves in more productive ways.

Sports has also been a means of pulling young men and women out of the streets and giving them the platform to express themselves more productively.

To further stress the unifying and boundless nature of sports, the Olympics has continually included sporting activities that allow for the participation of even disabled men and women  together, allowing them to still be useful. culture does have boundaries, our religious the organization also discriminate at some point but the world of sports leaves a man at will to express himself.

 

ABOUT THE WRITER

Alabo Tekenate Junior

OS/19C/0978