or a story that sport shouldn’t write.
The German Junior Athletics Championships took place indoors in Sindelfingen at the weekend. Elija competed to win the 800 meters on the track. The heats were child’s play and nothing stood in the way of a win. I was already overconfident – which of course one shouldn’t be – to write a nice headline for BIESTMILCH with Elija.
But everything turned out very differently.
Elija was unlucky on his journey from Berlin to Stuttgart already. Good old Lufthansa didn’t take his luggage on board, so no shoes for the run, no BIESTMILCH, no BIEST BOOSTER for the race. This misfortune resolved itself into happiness. But the tragedy of the story happened in the final of the 800 meters yesterday, on Sunday.
It evoked Bengt Kayser’s* sentence in my head once more: “Sport is unfair per se”.
This statement was not referring to doping or brutal behavior towards competitors, but to the fact that the physiological basis of every athlete is different, i.e. everyone is never the same on the starting line. Some people have to train harder than others to win. There are also athletes who, despite working hard, will never win and those who shouldn’t become professional athletes at all.
Regardless of the sport an athlete does, there is no equality of opportunity in sport. Which applies to all of us, but isn’t that noticeable because it’s usually not about victory or defeat.
Yesterday, however, the word fairness got a completely different note. Fairness is an essential feature in sports and its morals. Athletes are seen as role models for us ordinary citizens.
This 800 meter run was anything but fair. But nobody really cares. That may be the tragic thing about this story. It is seen and overlooked at the same time. It’s just part of it. Right after the start there was a scuffle, the elbows were stretched out, which is ticked off under “usual behavior”.
But then Elija was so badly hit that victory was out of the question. A kick in the thigh, at the tendon insertion of the quadriceps, where a blow is particularly painful, shattered the dream. A run at this level cannot be run with this injury, but Elija still crossed the finish line slowly.
In technical jargon one speaks of a horse kiss and does not mean the caressing of a gentle horse’s nostrils. In the end, Elija has to be happy that he didn’t suffer a torn muscle fiber.
Then the 2022 season would have been lost.
Elija is a young man with character and a deep cordiality, which is why he is also part of our BIESTMILCH team. He filed the incident “under learned something again”.
I watched the video closely, slow motion and zoomed in. In contrast to the expulsion of elbows, which is easy to see but rather harmless, this incident remains unseen and unpunished, so Elija remains also silent and looks ahead.
What does this teach us? Sport has nothing to do with fairness, sport is entertainment, a place for many big egos mixed with feelings of inferiority, a very rough road the further up the career ladder you climb. I think that should be clear to anyone who embarks on this career path. This profession is merciless and unrelenting and outwardly wears a pretty noble colorful dress for us.
Elija will recover quickly, because he takes BIESTMILCH 🙂 … And above all, unlike his competitor, who left the place as the winner, he has style.
At the end of this short text I would like to repeat once again: Sport is not fair in any respect. Are you tying me to the nearest tree because of that statement? The times of the pandemic have made it clear to us more than ever before that freedom, equality and fraternity are empty words that are intended to do nothing more than make us “good citizens” feel guilty.
Despite sporting unfairness, Elija remains an upright character, remains true to the sport, but once and again lost his youthful innocence and perhaps naivety about the course of this world, this life in general.
Now more than ever: The championship title in the outdoor season is waiting!
*Bengt Kayser · Faculty of Social and Political Sciences · Faculty of Biology and Medicine in Lausanne
