Sport and violence go hand-in-hand and the public should accept and understand this, a Grahamstown Sport Psychologist said.
Sport and violence go hand-in-hand and the public should accept and understand this, a Grahamstown Sport Psychologist said.
Greg Wilmot was commenting following a much publicised incident in which Uruguay and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez bit Italian player Giorgio Chiellini during a World Cup game in Brazil.
"Many people don't know or appreciate that sport is a socially accepted form of 'violence'," Wilmot said in an email correspondence with Grocott's Mail.
"Whether competing against opponents or supporting one team over another, sports mirror rivalries that are similarly seen in war, politics or [general]violence."
Wilmot, who was at the camp of Rhodes University's hockey team in Cape Town, said winning or losing are essential means of comparison; no one willingly wants to lose and sometimes athletes will do anything to not lose. Violence and aggression come with the territory.
"A mitigated, tempered form of violence is consented to in sport, so long as it doesn't breach the agreed upon rules of that sporting code," he said.
"Biting, spear-tackling or cheating aren't accepted in sport – even though they consent to other forms of violence."
On 29 June 1997, former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson bit off the ear of Evander Holyfield during a boxing match in Las Vegas for the WBA Heavyweight Championship.
Tyson was disqualified from the match and lost his boxing licence, though it was later reinstated.
In 2006 France’s star player Zinedine Zidane head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi during a World Cup final.
Wilmot attributed these acts of violence in sport to too much pressure from supporters to win competitions and to tough competition at top flight leagues.
“I think it’s more as a result of the massive amount of public (and personal) pressure sportsmen and women encounter. Arguably, the public could, by proxy, be responsible for such incidents. The stakes and pressure to perform are extremely high," he said in the email.
Wilmot said the difference between sport and war is a set of rules. The extent to which one may or may not use violence is negotiated by participants and the audience that give consent to that violence. He said the rules of rugby, or even boxing, permit certain types of violence – even though these forms of physicality would otherwise not be accepted in the public domain.
"You cannot legally punch someone in public or tackle them in the street," he said.
Wilmot said managing pressure, particularly in sports where a form of acceptable violence is permitted, can be very challenging.
He said that acts of violence in sport are, however, not justified.
"It certainly doesn't justify the violent actions of athletes. But the ability to cope with pressure through socially sanctioned channels is likely to be more difficult at an elite level of sport," he said.
