In today’s society, sports play a prominent role in the world. It is able to contribute to the international standing of a country, improve the welfare of the people and contribute to the economic growth of a country, to name a few benefits. With sports playing such an instrumental role, it will inevitably be tied together with government intervention. While some believe that government intervention is not necessary and would be detrimental to the spirit of the sport itself, others think that the government’s intervention is paramount in cultivating a sporting culture in a country and ensures that more people have access to sports. As a whole, sport should be supported by the government insofar as the provision of funding and facilities but not to the extent that sport is used for political means. Therefore, I believe that sport should not be free from the government.
Some people feel strongly against government intervention in sports as the corrupt nature of some governments would dilute and fragment the spirit of sports due to the methods employed by governments to gain prestige in the sporting arena. In many countries, sport is looked at as a measure of a country’s international standing and prominence on the world stage. As a result, governments would often want to ensure that the athletes are able to compete in international sporting competitions like the Olympics, so as to bring glory to the country. However, in some countries, the desire for success and triumph might cause governments to compromise on the spirit of sporting, which includes fair play and engages in underhanded methods to secure a victory for the country. This can include state-sponsored doping programmes, which undermine the sport and the health of the athletes. A prominent example would be during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where Russian athletes were caught in a complex doping scandal whereby more than fifty athletes were found to have used performance-enhancing drugs in order to optimize their performance. What made it worse was that the Russian government had been the ones who had sponsored and funded these doping activities. All in all, the Russians were accused to have orchestrated doping programmes at the Olympics and other competitions that involved or benefitted a thousand athletes in thirty sports. This not only led to the athletes being stripped of their medals but also stripped of the opportunity to ever compete again as the International Olympic Committee had issued lifetime bans for some of the athletes. This would demonstrate how the involvement of governments in sports would increase the probability of negative outcomes as some corrupt governments would be willing to compromise on the integrity of sports in order to ensure glory on the world stage. Therefore, many objects to the government’s intervention in sport as they believe that it would only serve their own agendas at the expense of the athletes.
Moreover, some are also cynical about government intervention in sports being used to further their political agendas against other countries, which might cause sports to be intertwined and tangled in politics. It is not surprising that sports are being used as a form of political leverage. However, sports are supposed to bond and unite people regardless of nationalities together under a common passion. Critics believe that as seen from history, some governments are willing to use sports as a method for them to further their political agenda while completely disregarding the essence of the sport. An example would be during the Moscow Olympics in the 1980s, at the peak of the Cold War. In response to the Soviets’ decision to invade Afghanistan, the Pentagon decided to ban American athletes from competing at the games and boycotted the event completely. This was to the dismay and outrage of some athletes who had trained so hard for their event only to have the political motives of the American government ruin their chance of participating at the Olympics. Although this had happened decades ago, many fear that the past would repeat itself and governments would start to use sports in order to further their political feuds with other countries and deprive their athletes as a result. Due to the association of governments with politics, many believe that their intervention would only set the pretext for the politicization of sports, which would cause the unifying spirit of sports to be tarnished. As a result of this reason, many feel that in order to prevent sports from being tainted by the world political climate, it needs to be free from government intervention.
However, while the above factors might be true in some countries, governmental intervention in sports would be able to support the growth of athletes in terms of fiving those with talents an avenue to showcase their own abilities through the provision of economic means. In some instances, an aspiring athlete would not be able to reach his optimum level of performance without support being offered by governments. Some forms of support would include economic support, in order to provide one with the relevant resources to work at his sport and the provision of adequate infrastructure and training facilities. These forms of support would ensure that everyone in society with the talent and the skills would be able to be provided with equal opportunities to succeed and represent the nation, regardless of their socio-economic status. For instance, in Singapore, the government has established the Singapore Sports School (SSS), which is a niche school catered to students who have a keen passion and the ability in their sport. SSS is a six-year programme where these students would be able to be developed to their full capacity while also having time for their academic work. Through the establishment of such niche schools, the government is ensuring that the young talents are well supported by the country and that adequate provisions are given to them to ensure that their studies are not being compromised for sports and vice versa. Furthermore, the government has also included a wide range of scholarships for students in SSS to ensure that regardless of their economic status, their skills would still be able to be honed. This demonstrates how crucial the role of the government is in cultivating athletes in a nation as not everyone would have equal opportunities to develop their skills due to the different economic situations of each individual. The government would be able to alleviate certain limitations that hinder the development of one and provide him with the avenue to sharpen and showcase his talent nationally or internationally. Through the funding, developments and policies of the government, there would be more accessible for athletes to develop their passion and have the opportunity to succeed. For this reason, the extensive support towards the development of sports would justify the government’s interference in sports.
Additionally, governments should not wash their hands off sports completely as their intervention would enable for the inculcation of an active lifestyle amongst the people in society. Usually, the government has the responsibility to maximize the welfare of the people and ensure that their basic needs, like healthcare, are not neglected. One aspect of healthcare would be ensuring that its people lead an active lifestyle by exercising so as to keep fit and healthy. In order to encourage people to maintain a healthy lifestyle, governments would need to provide people with activities that would enable them to maintain their health. One prominent method to achieve this would be through sports. Bearing the aims of the government in mind, which is to ensure that high standards of health are maintained, the government has the ability to promote sports in the lives of its people in order to fulfil this goal. In China, which has one of the world’s highest obesity rates, the government has been active in ensuring that the people learn and have the habit of maintaining a healthy lifestyle through mandating compulsory morning physical training in school to ensure that students would have a uniformed workout routine and engage in sports. By instilling the importance of sports and activity in children from a young age, they would have the habit of engaging in sports to keep healthy as they grow up. This would reflect how important the government is in ensuring that the people have access to sports so as to improve the welfare of the people through leading healthier lives. This would mean that governments should continue to intervene in sports to ensure that the majority of the people in society understand the importance of these sports to their health and lifestyle. Therefore, governments should not wash their hands off sports because it is a fundamental tool that they can effectively utilise to improve societal welfare.
To add on, governments should also intervene in sports, as they are able to make alterations to policies in order to encourage the development of sports. In many countries, athletes are tied down by legislation that hinders their progress and development in their sport. Through the use of the government’s political power, they are in the position to allow for the development of athletes and any particular sport in a country. An example would be in Singapore, where after the 2016 Rio Olympics, the government, having been urged by Singaporeans, deferred the gold medallist Joseph Schooling’s time for conscription in order to give him ample time to focus on training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Through concessions like these being made, athletes would be given opportunities to shine and train seeing as their rigour and momentum would not be hampered by the policies of governments. As such, this would also culminate in many other aspiring athletes to be encouraged to take up sports as they know that the government would wholly back them in their career. Therefore, the ability of the government to push for proper policies to support its athletes is a crucial reason why governments should intervene in sports.
In conclusion, the government should intervene in sports because they play an instrumental role in facilitating the growth of the sport economically, socially and politically. With that being said, their intervention for their own agendas should not and cannot be tolerated but should instead be discouraged to uphold the spirit of sports.
