Sport, Culture and the Good Story - The Old Strength of Civil Society

Two models of sport are usually regarded as the main axis or the main contradiction: sport of achievement on the one hand and fitness sport on the other. They tend to hide the third - popular sport. Let us take sport and aging as our perspective.

The first named model is the dominant one: achievement sport. At the top level it is represented by elite sport, but it includes the sport for your personal record. What is its relation to health and ageing?

Tennis star John McEnroe was 33 years old when he finished his career in 1992 and expressed his problems of switching: "And if you can't win any longer in the great tournaments or at least come forward to the final, then all is finished and you are out. This is not an easy decision for me, but in some respect a very emotional thing ... It is a feeling as if you are standing in a vacuum. Of course, people will say: With all his money and fame, this guy will not have any sleepless nights. But who can understand what this sort of transition really means? I am seriously concerned because this is a fundamental change for me. Most people of my age - thirty or thirty-five years old - will just be starting their career, but with professional athletes it is vice versa. I come from a world of dreams, from the world of tennis, back to reality."

The life process which this model of sport refers to is the career: Up-wards goes the way by the production of results, measured in c-g-s and points - finally reaching the top of the records. Finally? No - because then follows the crisis - and the way down to the end. Sport in this understanding is: producing yourself to the limit - your personal limit or the limit of your discipline - and what then? For the media, the good story in this model lies in the extraordinary result - and the champion who gives the result a face, the star. It is the story about production: Look, how the athlete produces the result; this is the event, its tension and its excitement! After the top records, however, there is hardly a place for the good story - for mainstream sport journalism. Memory books and Halls of Fame can scarcely hide this dilemma. In some respect, after the good story follows the boring story - or the bad one which, nevertheless, can be "good" for the press. After the career of the athlete, the attention shifts towards the gossip column, towards the gutter press. What happens to old McEnroe?

The configuration becomes still clearer when we regard the specific variant of achievement sport for the elder age - World Masters Games. In 1989 they were organised in Denmark in Herning, with 5400 participants from 71 countries and supported by the sport federation. This is a true copy of Olympic sport, after the premises of youth, only at a lower level of achievement. For the media, the results have therefore only little interest. This became evident when the World Masters Games in Denmark ended in an economic fiasco. The hosting municipality of Herning lost between 20 and 27 million crowns. Now, suddenly, the sport federation pronounced that this was a purely commercial arrangement and from a sport perspective not very interesting. The first model, thus, focuses on achievement as produced by competitions. The good story is tied to the product, the result, the record. If there is no interesting result - i.e. after the pinnacle of a career - there is no good story. Seen in this perspective, the achievement model even produces the crisis - with or without injuries, as expressed by McEnroe. Doping and anorexia can, seen from the point of view of the individual biography, also be understood as ways of reacting to the potential crisis - and working towards it.

The second model is fitness sport. It can be commercially organised or a social project, in the framework of what is called Sport for All. The case story could be Sport for the Elderly, a project which started at the Odense University in 1986/87. A group of the elderly enjoys - once a week - exercises arranged by young sports teachers. Through games, ball activities and gymnastics, they keep fit or even regain fitness. Some reactions among the elderly are: "It was wonderful, we felt very well - we nearly felt quite young again"; "yes, this was funny and amusing; we were nearly a crowd of children again". This successful motion aroused attention all over the country: A group of aged people who were able and willing to "keep them-selves young" became visible. The welfare state sees this a health-political chance as a counter-move against the growing costs of the health service. Sport in its soft and amusing form gains public interest as an instrument of health pedagogics - and of social integration.

Here, the life process goes from crisis to rehabilitation or regeneration. Fitness sport is not production (of results), but a sort of reproduction. In the case of the elderly, it is to slow down the process of decay; in general it should counteract the unhealthy lifestyle of late modernity. Where is the good story in this model? The media seem to have difficulties in finding it - except some specialized fitness and women magazines. I remember a Danish journalist, confronted with some critique of the lack in reporting about mass sport events, answering: Do you really expect me to describe those ever-glad elderly housewifes in the gym? Indeed, fitness motion of elderly people creates neither interesting results nor pictures of entertainment. It shows no sexy bodies. If - as a social project - it is interesting for welfare-oriented press, this will not find a place on the sport pages, but in the context of social policies. And under aspects of health, the topics of aids, doping and anorexia seem to be more attractive than backache and heart-circulation diseases.

When Norbert Elias characterized sport as a quest for excitement in an uninteresting society, fitness sport has its place rather at the uninteresting end - not for the individual, but for the media culture. The duality between sport of achievement and sport for fitness has been the background for the impression - still dominating in the world of sports as well as in the world of media - that, after all, sport is fundamentally only one (interesting) entity. This is, however, not the whole story. In fact, the Danish federation DGI and its 100 years old magazine Ungdom og Idrt work primarily for a third model, called folkelig idrt, popular sport. It is more difficult to describe and to translate to other cultural experiences than the two dominant - and internationally more standardized - models.

The Bremen Town Musicians: 
Once upon a time there was an old donkey who had worked all his life very hard by bearing heavy bags to the mill and back again. But now he had become old and weak and could not work any longer. That is why his master did not want to feed him any more and wished to get rid of him. But the donkey would not wait so long, but decided to make a shift in his life: "I'll go to Bremen and make my fortune as musician, as town minstrel". As said, so done. Walking on the road, he met a dog lying there in the dust and looking miserable. "Why do you look so miserable?" he asked. "Isn't life miserable? I was turned out of doors by my master because I am old and no longer able to serve as a hound for hunting." "Oh, don't worry; let us join and go to Bremen to become town minstrels." Soon afterwards the two met a cat mewing wretchedly and in distress. "Why do you mew so distressed?""Well, shouldn't I mew? My mistress has sent me away because I am too old now to catch any mice, and I am so hungry." "You better join us; we want to become town minstrels in Bremen." Again after some time the three met a cock crying terribly from the gate of a farm. "Why do you cry so terribly?" "Isn't there reason enough to cry? We expect guests tomorrow, and my farmer wants to put me into the soup. This is my last chance to cry." "We have a better idea; follow us on our way to Bremen, let us try our luck as town minstrels." As said, so done.

Before coming to Bremen, however, the night was falling and the four animals arrived at a large dark forest. There was only one light to be seen in the midst of the forest, it came from a small house, but when they approached it, they could see through the window a gang of robbers sitting at the table, eating and drinking and having a good time. (Isn't this the International Olympic Committee as described by Andrew Jennings?) What to do? The four animals made a plan. The dog climbed on the back of the donkey, the cat on the dog, the rooster on the top. And by a terrible crying - iaaah, bow-wow, me-ow, kikerikiiih - they stormed through the window into the room. The robbers, terrified by what they expected to be a monster, rushed out of the house into the forest, and the animals had a good meal at the table. Later on, the animals having laid down to sleep, the robbers sent one of them to the house again to check the situation. But in the darkness of the night, the cat scratched him in his face, the dog bit him in his leg, the donkey hit him with his hoof and the cock cried his kikerikiiih after him. The robber fled frightened to his fellows and told them that a witch had scratched him the face, a terrible man had stuck him with a large knife, a giant had hit him and the judge had called after him: Hold the thief! Terrified the robbers dispersed in the forest and the animals were left in peace. And if they have not died meanwhile, they are still living today.

Evidently, this folk tale describes situations and patterns which are constitutive for popular sport. What does it tell about age, health and culture? Firstly, there is life after the "career". There is good fortune for those who are set outside the society of production. Then: The project of the elderly is music, a cultural and expressive activity. Without minstrels, without drummers - no living folk dance. For the four animals, this project is innovative, they had never tried it before. It is directed towards the public culture, not towards the individual's fitness; health and self-preservation is attained as a by-product.

And now, very important: The elderly unite in a common project, they form a temporal community. The situation is too serious to be tackled in loneliness. They form an association. Furthermore: In the situation of challenge, they try something, they never have tried before, creatively and improvising - they stand on each others' shoulders. The form which in the gymnastic tradition is known as the pyramid. They risk the conflict and show in this situation a remarkable aggression - they behave like Grey Panthers.

Finally: they never reach Bremen, but - what does this matter? It is important to have the project. It is the way that counts. If this describes a third, cultural model of sport of the elderly, it can be characterized neither as production nor reproduction. Popular sport is neither the achievement process, producing the crisis, nor is it the reproduction out of the crisis. Sport as culture could be called aproductive - being rather related to identity work: Who are we, and what do we want with our life? Consisting of festivity and association, popular sport contributes to the quality of life. In the world of sports, as it is constructed today, this also means: cultural struggle. The robbers are sitting at the table. What is the good story in popular sport? It is related to cultural surprise and creativity. The journalism of popular sport is, on the one hand, in some respect comparable to the journalism of arts; lacking the "objective" skeleton of quanti-fied results, it has subjective elements. And on the other hand it is politi-cal. This combination is the challenge.

Seen under the aspect of the third - popular sport - contesting the hegemonic axis of achievement and fitness sport, sport journalism is part of the contradictory balance (or unbalance) between three societal sectors - state, market and civil society. Whilst the state is the sphere of political representation, public decision and redistribution with a certain monopolistic structure, the market consisting of a multiplicity of competing producers and suppliers, is governed by the principle of profit, by the optimation of the profit-lossratio. Civil society as a third sphere consists of self-organized and voluntary networks following the principle of non-profit engagement - whether for moral aims or for pleasure - in relative nearness and temporal community. Civil society is the field of popular culture. The three sectors respectively the three ways of acting - public, commercial, civic - show a clear unbalance in their relation towards the three described models of sport. Both state and market focus on the first and the second models, achievement and fitness.

The state is interested in elite sport for public representation by the production of top results; but public authorities have during the recent decades become more and more interested in fitness sport, too, expecting here a tool for social welfare. The market uses top sport as a media circus for high profit, and commercial interests have therefore infiltrated the world of international sport organisation for a high degree; but the market offers also increasingly fitness training in commercial institutes. Civil society - in contrast to both - is the historical root of sport as expressed in associational life and popular festivity. Today, the sport of civil society is under strong pressure from both public demands - consequently following with the increasing dependence of sport organisations from public funding - and commercial interests of sponsors, advertizers, media etc. But nevertheless, civil society is and remains the world of popular sport.

The unbalance in media attention for the different types of sport can be explained with this background in mind. Sport journalism is a mirror of hegemonic relations and can, furthermore be corrupted by the organized powers in sport, i.e. Olympic sport, meaning achievement sport (and money), and using fitness sport as an alibi. The journalist's attention to popular sport is therefore part in a cultural struggle for - or against - civil society.

The attention to the popular dimension in sport is by no means in conflict with the interest in health nor with the fascination of bodily excellence. Neither is health identical with fitness, nor is excellence in sport identical with the established achievement system. The latter - sportive excellence transceding the reductionism of the record system - may be illustrated by Torben Ulrich.

Torben Ulrich was a well-known Danish tennis star in the fifties and sixties, not far from the world's best. From his professional career inside the system of competitive sport, he later turned towards making films and happenings, poetry, painting and other cultural manifestations. His cultural essays are currently published in the Danish daily Information. By leaving the system of achievement sport behind, Torben Ulrich did not leave the world of sportive excellence - on the contrary. He began to work on its aesthetic and spiritual dimensions. In films he showed the absurdity and fascination of the ball. Using body techniques of Tibetan tantrism, he "measured" a long way through Copenhagen by his body, laying down and rising and laying down again ... As a sort of Buddhist one-man show, this athlete - who is still playing, in his late sixties on American tennis courts - philosophically deepens the understanding of the ball - giving thus a picture of life. The otherness - and sameness - of Torben Ulrich made him well-known in avantgarde circles as well as in local tennis clubs, in the critical sport research as well as in the Danish folkehjskole. Torben Ulrich tells us in some respect the reverse story of McEnroe - and the same story as the four animals on the way to Bremen. Health is more than fitness - it is cultural action. And for the journalist: there are good stories in sport outside the mainstream - but they are a challenge to established sport journalism.

This is not a one-way road. A sport journa-lism paying attention to the existing alternatives in sport could challenge the established sport system, too - making the robbers run away into the forest.

From the book "Society's Watchdog - or Showbiz' Pet?" Inspiration to Better Sports Journalism, Danish Gymnastics and Sports Associations 1998, more information at jsa@dgi.dk

___________

Author\'s CV
Henning Eichberg

B. 1942. Dr. phil. habil.
Cultural sociologist and historian, presently researching at Idraetsforsk, Research Institute of Sport, Body and Culture in Gerlev, Denmark.

HE received his academic degrees in Bochum and Stuttgart, held professors-hips in Odense and Co-penhagen and lectured at Austrian, Finnish and French Universities.

Dr. Eichbergs main fields are studies in body culture and sport, early military technology, ethnic minorities and national identity, and he is the author of more than 20 books on these topics.