Question

Speech on -the true spirit of sports

Answer 1

Athletes should be grounded in their faith and encouraged to engage in prayer and spiritual reading. Historically, sports were considered to be a virtue-making machine. The values that correspond with sports were considered to go hand in hand with those that go into being a person of integrity and faith.
Today, however, sports are increasingly associated with violence, drugs, racism and money. Vince Lombardi, former coach of the Super Bowl winning Green Bay Packers football team, spoke for a generation when he said ``winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."

This mentality has unfortunately become a large part of sports today. Sports should be a vehicle to develop good character, to make people courageous, generous losers, and gracious victors.

Answer 2

Answer:

Spirit of Sports

What matters in sport not victory or defeat but how you played the game. This is what we call sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is one of the most desirable qualities in any great player whether he be a cricketer or tennis player, a footballer or any sport person; the spirit of sports separate the excellent from the mediocre, the grain from the chaff. It shows the quality that needs to be imbibed by everyone, whether a player or a normal human being. What exactly does the spirit of sport implies ? It is in fact, the sum total of coolness, modesty, humility, sympathy and above all the element of humanism-an element which is needed in every walk of life.

If we see us around, we can see numerous example, in 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup held in England, Australian captain Steve Waugh showed true sportsman’s spirit when he walked into the South Africa dressing room, after their incredible semifinal match in which the South Africans were eliminated to sympathise with them and compliment them on having played a fine game. The sporting Australian Captain refused to gloat over his victory, sympathising with the side that had lost despite having played a fine game. Thus Australians showed and kept the true spirit of the sport.

Again Australian spin king Shane Warne, showed an outstanding example of the spirit of the sport in the Super six match against New Zealand. Despite being hammered by New Zealand batsman Roger Twose while bowling he was the first man to rush up to Twose and warmly shook his hand after the batsman had hit the winning runs.