Athletes are prideful people. Athletic competition breeds egotism, and egotism is naturally essential to success via confidence in performance in athletic competition. This same pride & egotism often transfers over into life and creates imprints, often significant on who and how athletes are as people, after the game is over. Consequently, when a specific occupation occupies much of a persons life and defines so much of who they are, the natural reaction to be proud and boastful of their endeavours can only be seen as natural and expected. So when you put two, or more, individuals in a room, whose chosen sports happen to differ, good luck in witnessing this group come to a common conclusion on whose athletic calling reigns supreme. It simply won't happen, or at least I have not seen it yet.
I am a hockey player. The sport has invested heavily in who I am and how I go about handling myself in life. For twenty plus years I have committed a great deal of time & discipline to the craft and would be dishonest if I said that I was not very proud and encouraged by the success and progress I have accomplished. I would not be the same person today without the sport. In saying that, I enjoy believing that being a successful athlete in hockey is arguably the toughest, most demanding, and skill combining position in sports. Yet, I possess simply an opinion, the same as every other athlete and person in the world. I have played tennis, attempted surfing, soccer, baseball, football & basketball recreationally but only in hockey have I experienced high, most demanding levels of play. My point being, I truly have no idea how difficult and demanding any other sports at their peak levels, are, and can be. Conversely, a extremely small percentage of top athletes really ever experiences more than one sport at a top level. The time required, discipline demanded, and strenuous claims on the mind and body make excelling in multiple athletic events mathematically minute across the whole.
But if the sports we all play, are each the most difficult, most challenging, than transferring and expected excelling in other forms of competition should be most easy then right? Of course not. Today I swam 4 laps in a 50 meter swimming pool and was exhausted. I have attempted to hit a baseball and am awful. Football is fun, except for the bone crunching body slams to the turf. Surfing is easy except for the whole standing up and riding the wave bit. These examples can go on and on. If all of my claims that hockey is supreme are correct, than logic would say that in essence, all other sports should be gradually more simple, less challenging to succeed in.
Perhaps that is what makes athletic competition so entrancing and captivating, constantly alluring participants and spectators alike. Just as not every person is equipped with the same tools and talents, the diversity in sports and each of their consequent demands varies and differs with each discipline. It is why football players love watching basketball, why basketball players love watching football, hockey players love golf, and so on. One of the most underrated aspects of sports is the deep, underlying respect that develops and grows between athletes, particularly of different occupations. As much as a baseball player believes I am crazy for stopping 90mph pucks, I am in equal envy of their ability to track and smack a hurling ball 400+ feet. The root of athletics is competition, it is the lifeblood and the carrot dangling in front of every athlete. We love to compete, and love to watch others endure its trials and tribulations just as much.
Sport is beautiful. In all of its forms. The same as every person is unique in their existence, such is the same for athletic competition. The truly fortunate, and successful are those who pair their existing skill sets, talents and motifs to a consequent athletic discipline spawning the highest levels of achievement. The athlete, and person who can truly step back and embrace and recognize every sport in equal glory and impressiveness is one who understands. For that is what sport is all about. The ability and drive to challenge yourself, to push your limits, expand your disciplines, improve your skills and conquer your fears. It is finding the fire within yourself and harnessing it in order to take yourself and your abilities to the next level. How and where you choose to enjoy sport is the choice each and every one of us have. From the triathlete to the rower, from the three hundred pound lineman to the hundred pound jockey, sport accepts and embraces us all. Sport provides the outlet, the opportunity and that is all we can ask for. Those who celebrate and respect the hard work of others are truly the desired end product of athletic competition. To be able to put aside the ego of your own endeavours & accomplishments and selflessly stand as a witness to unequivocally appreciate the feats of competition by someone else is the essence and center of the heart of athletic competition.
The next time you are confronted by the query of what form of athletic competition truly is the premier, I challenge you to instead try and prove which sport is the most inferior, can you?
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