Play Like a Champion

In our competitive society, where it seems that only the strong and winners deserve to live, sport also teaches us how to lose. It forces us, in learning the art of losing, to confront our fragility, our limitations and our imperfections. It is through the experience of these limits that we open our hearts to hope. Athletes who never make mistakes, who never lose, do not exist.

In an increasingly digital society, where technology brings distant people closer together, yet often creates distances between those who are physically close, sport proves a valuable and concrete means of bringing individuals together, providing a healthier sense of the body, of space, effort and real time. It helps to preserve a healthy contact with nature and with real life, where genuine love is experienced.

In a society marked by solitude, where radical individualism has shifted the emphasis from “us” to “me”, resulting in a deficit of real concern for others, sport – especially team sports – teaches the value of cooperating, working together and sharing. These are at the very heart of God’s own life.