Question we must ask about sports

Mike Barredo of the Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled (Philspada)-National Paralympic Committee (NPC) called to say, rightfully, that the disabled is a constituency in sports that needs more attention. 

Reacting to our suggestions (culled from sectors batting for a more inclusive sports program) that the proposed amendments to the existing Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) law include specifics on how to apportion the PSC budget, Barredo says that “we too at Philspada-NPC are working for the inclusion/recognition of national athletes with disabilities as well as children, youth, women and grassroots development per the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD).”

I had mentioned in last week’s column that the PSC budget could be divided in percent as follows: 50, grassroots sports; 20, elite; 10, children and youth sports; 10, gender equity and 10, scholarships. Perhaps this could be amended to earmark 10 percent for sports for persons with disabilities (SPWD), the 10 coming from the 50 for grassroots sports. Grassroots sports 50 percent will be adjusted to 40, to accommodate SPWD.

Barredo, who once served the PSC as a commissioner representing the differently-abled, points out the need to amend Republic Act 9064 which states the guidelines on the award of incentives to Filipino medalists in international elite sports. He says athletes with disabilities who win medals in competitions such as the ASEAN Para Games, Asian Para Games, Paralympic Games and other world championships should be entitled to those incentives.

Sometime in September 2010, Barredo led the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) in a strategic planning conference in Manila to further promote sports for the visually impaired. Barredo, now on his second four-year term as IBSA president up to 2013, lost his eyesight in a vehicular accident in the prime of his youth. He was goalkeeper of the De La Salle University varsity football squad.

Barredo says that fortunately, the Philippine Olympic Committee, the PSC and Congress are supportive of the Philspada- NPC’s efforts to provide resources for the athletes of the differently-abled sector.

We continue to provide some highlights of Dr. D. Stanley Eitzen’s paper, “American Sport in the New Millennium” which is in the book “Sport in Contemporary Society”.

Eitzen, who is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Colorado State University and a Sports Ethics Fellow at the Institute for International Sport (in recognition of his contributions to the sociology of sport), asks, “What lesson is being taught and caught when a coach openly asks a player to cheat? Consider this example. A few years ago, the Pretty Prairie Kansas High School had twin boys on its team. One of the twins was injured but suited up for a game where his brother was in foul trouble at half time. The coach had the twins change jerseys so that the foul-plagued twin would be in the second half with no fouls charged to the player’s number he was now wearing…”

Eitzen continues to say that we live in a morally distorted world – a world where winning often supersedes all other considerations, where moral values have become confused with the bottom line. In this in-your-face, whip-your-butt climate, winning at any price becomes the prevailing code of conduct. And when it does, Eitzen asserts that sport (does) build character, but it is bad character. When society, makes the value of winning so important that it trumps morality, then we and sport are diminished.

Eitzen concludes his article with a statement and a plea. We celebrate sport for many good reasons. It excites and it inspires. We savor the great moments of sport when an athlete does the seemingly impossible or when the truly gifted athlete makes the impossible routine. We exult when a team or an athlete overcomes great odds to succeed. We are touched by genuine camaraderie among teammates and competitors. We are uplifted by the biographies of athletes who have used sport to get an education that they would have been denied because of economic circumstance or who have used sport to overcome delinquency and drugs.

But for all our love and fascination with sport and our extensive knowledge of it, do we truly understand it? Can we separate the hype from reality and the myths from facts? Do we accept the way sport is organized without questioning? Unfortunately for many fans and participants alike, there is a superficial, uncritical and taken-for-granted attitude concerning sport.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated has written that “sport deserves a more critical examination. We need to ask more probing questions about sport.” Eitzen says asking those questions has always been his goal and it continues to be so – and he hopes it will be ours as well. I can’t agree more with that.