Sport As A Unifier Essay

A: Sport as a Unifier

1. Yes, I believe strongly that sporting events contribute to unifying a nation. Nelson Mandela defied his advisors by donning the springbok rugby jersey, a symbol of apartheid, during the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. This did more for harmony and equality then years of talk and that simple act united an entire nation. Although the atrocities of the past will never be forgotten, sport changed a generation and brought an entire nation together with one voice, one common goal and a common cause. Sport unified an entire nation and with South Africa on the brink of civil war it took the bravery and intellect of one man and his view of sport to ignite a special kind of unity and win the trust of sport-centric Afrikaners, whites and blacks alike to board the democracy train and come together as one.

2.1. Image 2: Nelson Mandela handing Francois Pienaar (Springbok captain) the Rugby World Cup trophy after South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final held in South Africa.

Image 3: The 2010 Soccer World Cup held in South Africa

Image 4: Cameron van der Burgh winning a gold medal and

Doping in sports occurs for two reasons. The first being the physical toll that sport takes on the body and the second being the limited timeframe that an athlete has as a sportsman in which they need to earn sufficiently and be the best that you can be. Take cycling and bodybuilding for example. Athletes believe that the only way for them to compete successfully is for them to dope as the strain and stress that a sport like weightlifting puts on the body causes them to dope. Likewise with a race like the Tour de France where racing 120km’s per day up mountains like the Pyrenees creates such a strain on the body for 3 solid weeks. On the other hand, no one in table tennis dopes, because they are not physically challenged to extreme degrees. Therefore, the physical requirements and stress that a sport puts on athletes can cause them to result in