Racism in Sport

Racism is currently a debatable topic within sport thanks to the controversy surrounding John Terry and Luis Saurez and the comments made by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.  Firstly let me point out that I, like most people, am completely against racism or any other form of discrimination in sport such as bullying or sectarianism.

The first well known case of racism in sport was back in the 1936 Berlin Olympics where Jesse Owens caused an uproar by winning four gold medals and in doing so eliminated Hitler's idea of "White Supremacy".  



Jesse Owens on the podium

Owens did not get the recognition he deserved for his great achievement as worried about how conservatives would vote President Roosevalt refused to invited Jesse to the White House - had he done so the racial barriers may have been broken a lot sooner and this may not even be a topic today.

There are many recent examples of racism both at a group and one to one level.  The recent incidents between John Terry and Anton Ferdinand (below) and Luis Saurez and Patrice Evra are perfect examples of one to one racism. 

Group racism was exemplified by the Indian cricket crowd making racist chants to Australian Andrew Symonds and also at a international friendly between Spain and England where some players such as Ashley Cole and Shaun Wright-Philips were barraged with monkey chants from the crowd when they touched the ball.  No racism is tolerant but group racism like these examples are a bad reflection on an area or country. 

One to one racism can sometimes be heat of the moment.  I am still not defending it but sometimes in the heat of battle players will say things that they really don't mean and may not even remember saying.  However in the world we live in today a bit of sportsmanship like this should be outdated and eradicated from every one's minds.  This is why Seep Blatter's comments were disgraceful and for me he should have stepped down after making them.

The sporting world is making massive steps against racism with campaigns such as "One Game, One Community" in football, "Everyrace" in F1 and "One Game" in Cricket.  The South African Rugby Team is a perfect example of how far the world and in particular that country has progressed in its racism fight.  In this years world cup South Africa had a black coach/manager and numerous black players which is far from the days of it being a white dominated sport.  Even the countries most ardent fans - in the heart of Afrikaner country - don't seem to mind anymore. 



South African Ruby World Cup 2011 Squad

In our own country the IFA and GAA united against racism and sectarianism last year at a weekend of games by playing a unite against hate anthem and distributing wristbands. 

I believe these campaigns raise awareness of the issues they are aiming to eradicate but unfortunately I do not see them completely eradicating issues such as racism, sectarianism or bullying.  I think there will always be certain individuals who will use comments about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, political status, beliefs or physical appearance to abuse an opposing team or individual.  In society we are very judgemental and although we probably don't like to admit this we judge people on what we see initially.  With this I think until we change the way our whole society thinks we will not eradicate these issues fully from sport. 

Hopefully one day I am proved wrong!