Claire Fahy
Editor-in-Chief
The case of Oscar Pistorious has sadly proven an addendum to my previous column (http://z5.sacredsf.org/~broadview/?p=5926) on the troubling trend of athletes who see themselves as being above the law.
On Valentine’s Day, Pistorious, the Olympic athlete who sprints on prosthetic blades, whom I lauded in my first column this year (http://z5.sacredsf.org/~broadview/?p=5309) for his sportsmanship, is accused of murdering his girlfriend by shooting her in the bathroom of his apartment in Pretoria, South Africa. He claims to have mistaken her for an intruder in the darkness, and Friday he was granted bail.
I don’t understand the complexities and subtleties of the situation’s details – I’m no lawyer. I don’t even care whether or not Pistorious thought his own girlfriend was trying to break into his house, which seems utterly ridiculous. What I care about is my ever-diminishing faith in the world of athletics.
Sports of all kinds have inspired me since before I can remember. I can engage anyone in a conversation on any field, from crew to curling.
I religiously comb the Sporting Green every morning, reading up on the feats of tennis players, golfers, anyone I find remotely intriguing.
Pistorious was no exception. I was humbled and heartened by his Olympic feats this last summer, made all the more poignant by the fact he runs on prosthetic legs. He was supposed to be different, not just because he had weathered unthinkable adversity but because he was supposed to understand what it all meant. He had worked so unimaginably hard – he was supposed to appreciate the true essence of competitive sports.
Now, he joins my long list of great disappointments. It doesn’t matter if it was an accident, or if his girlfriend’s murder was not premeditated. Oscar Pistorious has fallen from grace like too many before him.
I believe in sports for conventional reasons — the work ethic they inspire, the camaraderie they build, the character they create. I have written countless columns regarding my opinions on these points. As common as these beliefs are, it seems as time goes on it seems I am one of the few who continues to hold them.
On any given day it seems the entire world of sports has become swept up in the glamour of it all, in the image, in the excess instead of the success. Sadly, I’m appealing once more for us all to remember that athletes were once meant to possess character, not be characters in tragic sagas.
The case of Oscar Pistorious has sadly proven an addendum to my previous column on the troubling trend of athletes who see themselves as being above the law.
On Valentine’s Day, Pistorious, the Olympic athlete who sprints on prosthetic blades, whom I lauded in my first column this year for his sportsmanship, is accused of murdering his girlfriend by shooting her in the bathroom of his apartment in Pretoria, South Africa. He claims to have mistaken her for an intruder in the darkness, and Friday he was granted bail.
I don’t understand the complexities and subtleties of the situation’s details – I’m no lawyer. I don’t even care whether or not Pistorious thought his own girlfriend was trying to break into his house, which seems utterly ridiculous. What I care about is my ever-diminishing faith in the world of athletics.
Sports of all kinds have inspired me since before I can remember. I can engage anyone in a conversation on any field, from crew to curling.
I religiously comb the Sporting Green every morning, reading up on the feats of tennis players, golfers, anyone I find remotely intriguing.
Pistorious was no exception. I was humbled and heartened by his Olympic feats this last summer, made all the more poignant by the fact he runs on prosthetic legs. He was supposed to be different, not just because he had weathered unthinkable adversity but because he was supposed to understand what it all meant. He had worked so unimaginably hard – he was supposed to appreciate the true essence of competitive sports.
Now, he joins my long list of great disappointments. It doesn’t matter if it was an accident, or if his girlfriend’s murder was not premeditated. Oscar Pistorious has fallen from grace like too many before him.
I believe in sports for conventional reasons — the work ethic they inspire, the camaraderie they build, the character they create. I have written countless columns regarding my opinions on these points. As common as these beliefs are, it seems as time goes on it seems I am one of the few who continues to hold them.
On any given day it seems the entire world of sports has become swept up in the glamour of it all, in the image, in the excess instead of the success. Sadly, I’m appealing once more for us all to remember that athletes were once meant to possess character, not be characters in tragic sagas.
