WHY WE TALK ABOUT SPORT, or the weather.

I overheard my landlord last Monday talking with the boiler engineer about Andy Murray’s run at Wimbledon this year. The engineer said: “he made it difficult for himself the other day, didn’t he?” Then last night, on a train to central London, I heard a father telling his son “Murray just lost the third set”, before putting a face.

The thing was that the engineer then added “I am not a sporty person, don’t really follow sport. But let’s hope he finally wins the thing”.

  

So, I wondered: why do we do it? Why do we talk about sport?

For your information: Andy Murray is Great Britain’s top ranked tennis player*, at number four... in the world. He is also the only one in the top 100. He has made it to the Wimbledon Final, which is played this Sunday. He is too the first male Brit* to do so in a looooooooong, long time, like many, many, maaaaaaaaany decades. It may sound surprising to many people but that’s the truth. Fact.

“Let’s hope he finally wins it,” he said.

As if the hopes of the entire nation*, 60+ million people, were on him. Poor guy, Murray –‘poor’ metaphorically speaking; he’s made already over £10 million in prize money alone in his otherwise brilliant tennis career to date- he has not only got to beat the other guys, he also has to win it for the country. And if he doesn’t, people will probably say “he is just not good enough.”

Wimbledon's Main Draw. 128 men and 128 women make it to the first round, then is carnage from there.
Only 1 of them wins.

Those of you who play or follow sports, whether competitively or for leisure, will surely know how bloody difficult is to be good at it. Only very few become professionals, and within those only a very few gifted ones make it to the very, very top, world-class level. Federer, Michael Schumacher, Michael Phelps, Jack Nicklaus, Usain Bolt, Jordan, the Williams sister, Merlene Ottey, Nadia Comaneci. A few dozens.

Andy Murray has been within the world’s best ten tennis players for a few years now. He has won many important tournaments, but not one of the so-called Grand Slams – he’s played a few finals but has never won one yet, not even come close; it’s tough, you know. By any stretch of the imagination that is already a fantastic career. Only a few dozens of players in the world, ever, have done that; out of billions of us, only a few have done so. Bloody brilliant that is. And yet many, many people in Britain* think he’s just not good enough.

Give the guy a break! That’s what I say. He may not be the most likeable character around, but he’s done bloody well for himself; and he is still in his mid 20s! The vast majority of us have never made over £1,000,000, probably not even £500,000. He’s done over £10 million already, many more to be made in the next few years. Hats off to that!

So, why do we talk about sport? Well, simply because it’s there.

Just like Mount Everest. Why people climb it? Because it’s there.

It’s there in the news, on the paper, on the radio, on telly, in the pub, at a ground or court down the road. It’s everywhere. It’s an important part of our lives. Many like me follow it daily and we actively participate in sport, we love it and can’t have enough. For others, like the engineer, is something to talk about - without really having a clue what they are talking about; sorry, fact.

We like to talk about it because it’s safe; there’s never going to be a right or wrong answer. And it will not change your life, nor change mine. We don’t put ourselves at risk by talking about it, yet we feel accomplished by giving our opinions about it. Talking about sports is a lot more gratifying than talking about politics, or the weather for that matter.

And why is it everywhere? For many reasons; let’s try to highlight the main ones:

1. It’s healthy: while many people are becoming more sedentary, another big portion of society is really active and wants to keep healthy for as long as possible. Playing sports, or exercising in general, is good for you, for your body and your mind. So we inform ourselves about it, what is good for you, what isn’t.

2. It’s fun! We don’t say “playing sports” for the sake of it. They are games, and we play them. We don’t eat sports, we don’t build or boil them. We play them and we interact and communicate with others. At some point someone will win, and someone will lose, but it makes us feel good just to play, to think of how to win, or how not to lose!

3. We consume it: we not only play it for fun, we follow those lucky enough who become professionals and play for our home town team, or for the biggest team in the world. Or are the top ranked golfers or tennis players or swimmers or racing drivers. It’s glamorous and aspirational, for many.

4. It’s big money: because of reasons 1, 2 and 3 above, it’s now become a HUGE industry moving BILLIONS of £, $ or € around the world. Either directly (e.g. when you buy a ticket to attend a match) or indirectly (e.g. you buy an adidas t-shirt for your son because Lionel Messi wears adidas).

5. It’s pride: like Spain winning last week the Euros, when over 1,000,000 people took it to the streets of Madrid to celebrate. Or Andy Murray reaching the Wimbledon Final*. Sport makes people feel proud about where they come from and about their heroes. Sport has become, to certain extent, an alternative to people fighting each other** and by my team beating your team, I am better than you. And the other way round. We don’t have to fight each other, we let Fernando Alonso beat Sebastian Vettel, or the other way round.

1,000,000+ people take it to the streets of Madrid to celebrate Spain's win last week

We could go on and on but these are just some of the reasons. They are by no means listed scientifically but you can get my point. In short, sport fills our lives in a way no other hobbies do. Music and Movies do to certain extent, but they do not have the competitive element of Sport. And that’s why we talk about sport, in a nutshell.

* People in Britain are proud of Andy Murray reaching the Final because he is British – it may sound obvious, I know. But, and here is the catch, he is Scottish after all. Many people in England, Wales or Northern Ireland cannot care less about him. Fact. But because he is “British”, many people get behind him. Come Sunday evening, and another defeat, and many people will go back to be simply “English”, or “Welsh” but not “British”. And will say “I told you so”. Fact.

England played Spain at Wembley last October - NOTE: it is England, not Great Britain.
One of those things unique about sport.

** Sadly, there are many wars being fought around the world still today. People kill each other for a piece of land or for no reason at all. That’s terrible. The day a game of football or a 100 metres race can decide that, we will all have won.