Sport And Beauty: Swallows In The Wind
In Finland we have been lucky to have enjoyed many a beautiful scene in sport. It is quite impossible to be truely objective about this. Sport is so very much more than any so called ”objective” analysis. Sport can be beautiful in a truthful subjective way.
Finland has been graced with wonderful ice-skaters. The beauty here is often to do with the glide. Gliding almost effortlessly across the ice. Gliding as if the ice is a part of the human body. Only a few football players manage to achieve this glide. George Best and Johan Cruyff were examples of this gliding beauty on display like birds on the wing. Best and Cruyff were swallows.
In another sport Finland has also shown a kind of beauty. If you have ever watched a sprinting kayak cut through the water, as if a knife was cutting through warm butter, then you will know what I mean. It makes no difference if it is a male or a female kayaker the beauty remains as a total image. This is speed in slow motion to please the eye. Again this has all the appearance of a glide. A cliche perhaps but ”poetry in motion” fits here.
I do not find this type of beauty in Formula One racing. In fact, as far as the media is concerned, the only beauty in this F1 racing is found through models or blonde bomshells. I do not find real beauty either in ice hockey or in boxing or even in less agressive sports like basketball. These are not beautiful sports.
But in high jumping I think we can see this beauty on display. Other field events like the discuss may satisfy as the classic Grecian pose of a naked performer well tells. The track events, seem to me, to be lost to beauty. I doubt that even the most enthusiastic supporter of the 50 kilometre walk would pretend to say that this walking is beautiful. Yet somehow the 110 metre hurdles event is the odd track event that proves the rule. Hurdling has that glide.
Beauty in sport, as in all things, is not aggressive in the violent sense. Beauty finds its truth in a kind of harmony and a harmony through motion.
Although real rock climbing is hardly a sport we can still sense a beauty at work when the rock face becomes the stage for a poetic performance where body and nature finds a balance in excellence. The glide again is here. The climber effortlessly swings about the rock like a glorious monkey in the trees. There is a wonderful dexterity involved in this but this beautiful skill is, of course, mixed up with chance. Beautiful movements can go wrong. But that is all for another day. Let's stick to the idea that a beautiful sport is non-violent and glides along.
What about our famous Finnish javelin throwers? This is a tricky one but I would end up by saying that beauty is not to found here however much this beauty is so very very close to being found. The javelin thrower simply tries too hard and seems to be fighting the javelin. The javelin responds with that dreaded wobble in the air. The glide is gone. The sense of effortless grace is lost to ”pumping iron”.
Our swimmers sometimes attain beauty. When there is little splashing of the water and when the body glides along as if being sucked along by magnetic forces. Swimming is rather like kayaking here. The less splashing of water the more the glide and then the beauty shows itself. Speed with grace. Splashing around is not a harmony of motion and in the more practical senses this splashing is really wasted energy. It is a sign of violence and misplaced aggression.
I guess the reader might disagree with my thinking here. Finland is a rich nation of sports folk so I doubt that my call for effortless grace, harmony, non-violence and beauty will satisfy everybody. I doubt my promotion of the glide will fit every sporting enthusiast. However I might have a reasonable point here. Might make a good topic for conversation.
If the good reader does decide to chat about this then please avoid the mistake of thinking about beauty in terms of the internet or sporting sponsors. Beach Volley may be sexy ( for some) but is is not beautiful.
Now if some semi-naked or naked beach ball volley player changed sports to high board diving then it might be quite different. If that diver entered the water with little or no splash then we might begin the beautiful debate. Sexiness has nothing to do with it.
Steve Bowles
