Dreams and delusions

Editor – Amanda Beadman

A number of recent news items have drawn attention to professional sportspeople, whether coaches or athletes, who are seen as betraying their loyalties when they use their professional skills to make the best possible money they can.

Australian Olympic coaches work for our sporting competitors and our best Rugby League players follow the cash to foreign lands – and for some reason we are surprised.

The idea of sport has become so romanticised that many of us have turned a blind eye to the fact that it is a billion dollar industry and that the people involved are usually predominantly motivated by lucrative contracts.

This doesn’t make them traitors to their fans, it makes them smart and good at what they do.

In an ideal world – perhaps one where people didn’t need to earn a living, athletes could perform out of sheer loyalty to their country and code.

But a world like that has never existed except in the minds of some delusional followers of sport who equate it with something above and beyond simple athleticism and competition for the purposes of entertainment and profit.

Many very wealthy people depend on keeping the illusion alive – and perhaps it’s a harmless way to make people feel connected to their area or their nation. . . . . .but when the reality that cash is the ultimate decider in loyalties is revealed, it is surprising that we are able to “keep the dream alive” at all.