Column | Grand gestures and a discordant note

Don't we know this and actually see it almost every weekend? On every match day in any football league? A player slides into another, hitting him hard on the foot. The fouled player then limps off the field, supported by the club doctors. A break of several weeks follows. Sometimes fouls with such consequences result in a red card, sometimes just a yellow card, which amounts to trivializing the offense. What is usually missing, however, is an immediate and truly sincere apology. Even on the pitch. Fairness in football is a pipe dream. What happens on the pitch reflects the brutality of our society, which is also directly felt from the spectators. Referee decisions are almost constantly criticized, our own failures and misconduct are ignored. It is always someone else's fault. And the higher the price, the more merciless the way we treat each other. The friendly match between Germany and Spain between the U21 teams showed that things can be done differently. After unfortunate attacks, after tackles, which are of course allowed and part of the game, a hand was immediately extended. It's all good, buddy. The young ones are doing what the old ones have long since forgotten.

Football is anything but a role model when it comes to dealing with one another. Other sports have committed themselves from the outset to giving fairness a high, even decisive, role through clear rules. Golf is one of them. Cheating, should a ball accidentally land in the thick grass outside the fairway, is more than a minor offense. It is a criminal offense, even if eyewitnesses have shown that current US President Donald Trump likes to give the ball a little nudge to make the next shot easier. Mutual respect is also important in curling, which even goes so far as to forgo the referee in rule-breaking situations and to easily sort things out between players if, for example, an opponent's stone is accidentally touched. This has an extremely pleasant and soothing effect on the observer.

The biathlon final And then there was biathlon. When Franziska Preuss crossed the finish line in Oslo, knowing that she had breathed life into her big dream of winning the overall World Cup, she didn't celebrate exuberantly, which any observer would have understood. No. Her thoughts and gestures were actually with the loser of this epic duel in the final race, Lou Jeanmonnot from France, who had crashed on the last tight corner through her own fault. Preuss caught the defeated woman. They hugged each other. Tenderly. They almost couldn't let go. Jeanmonnot immediately admitted that Preuss hadn't been to blame for her mishap. At the closing party in Oslo, Preuss showed up wearing a French jacket, while Jeanmonnot slipped into a German one. Franziska Preuss, in particular, demonstrated in an outstanding and incredibly likeable way that sport can very well play a role as a role model in an increasingly heated social atmosphere. Opponents who fought fiercely without losing their composure have become friends. Perhaps for life, as was the case, unforgettable for me, after the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich between the German javelin thrower Klaus Wolfermann and the Latvian Janis Lusis. They never lost touch, even after their careers.

The big losers recently, however, were the Norwegian ski jumpers, who, with their statements after their suit tampering was exposed, clearly demonstrated that they had learned nothing, absolutely nothing. Their credo was that the controls were too lax. Which meant: If they don't improve, we'll continue cheating as usual. A multi-year ban for the Norwegians from all ski jumps around the world for the next few years would have been appropriate long ago, given the chutzpah with which they cheated us all, especially their opponents and the International Ski Federation. It's a shame that this winter ended on a discordant note, because otherwise it once again delivered excitement, drama, and emotion in abundance. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to the next season with undeterred joy. With the competitions as part of the Olympic Games in Milan/Cortina and, of course, Antholz, where the biathletes will compete for medals.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The award-winning sports journalist (including the German Television Award, the Bavarian Sports Award, and a nominee for the prestigious Grimme Prize), author, longtime sports editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and commentator for Eurosport since 1989, devotes his weekly column to the entire spectrum of sports. He also enjoys exploring not-so-unfamiliar territory. Sometimes with a smile, sometimes thoughtfully or deliberately provocatively. There should be something for everyone.

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Column | Grand gestures and a discordant note

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