Question: What has sport turned into?

Answer: Sport has turned into a hunt for prey! You step out as if into a jungle to hunt down a medal.

Question: You have to defeat everyone else. But what should it be instead?

Answer: People should strive for achievements that they attain together. Suppose, in a certain stadium, in a particular sport, under certain conditions, they achieve the highest possible result. That result belongs to everyone.

In general, I am against awards.

Question: Then what should a person strive for? What does you get out of it?

Answer: That is exactly your answer: “If there is no award, then what should I do?” It means you do not love sport; you love the medal.

Comment: Yes, the medal, or the admiration, the applause, that is what people want.

My Response: No, you can wear some kind of badge of distinction. You and everyone else. But I would not rank people by place. It’s about participation!

Question: Just participation? Do you think people would still take part?

Answer: If they truly love sport, then yes.

Question: What about when an athlete helps another athlete? For example, a runner gets tangled up, and another competitor helps him. Where would you place that on the podium? What place would you give it?

Answer: That is the most important thing! That deserves the medal.

Question: What should be the fundamental principle of sports?

Answer: Friendship and mutual help! To show all of us, and ourselves as well, what kind of potential is hidden within us. That is all.

Comment: But in soccer, one team plays against another. Where is the friendship in that? We have to win. We have to score in the other team’s net.

My Response: They should enjoy that. It all depends on one’s upbringing.

Comment: I enjoy scoring a goal. I enjoy seeing my team win.

My Response: And the others should enjoy it as well. It depends on the beauty of the game.

Let soccer be an art form: the way they keep the ball in the air, how beautifully they pass it. Rather than shoving and tripping each other.

Question: How should the spectators perceive it? After all, I am a fan of one club. How should I look at all this?

Answer: So what? You will support your club. You will feel the sting of defeat or the joy of victory. So what?

Question: But if the other team wins, what should I, as a spectator, do?

Answer: Then you will experience those emotions. That is what sports are for.

Question: What about combat sports? When it isn’t a team competition, like wrestlers or boxers, what should the mindset be there?

Answer: There, it is even simpler. It is all right there to be seen. You are fighting, and he is fighting.

Question: What should our intention be? What should we want?

Answer: To show beauty.

Question: Then what is beauty, in your opinion? What is the beauty they should demonstrate?

Answer: They need to find a way to demonstrate a benevolent kind of strength.

Question: Benevolent strength is still a force. How can it be benevolent?

Answer: Yes, there is benevolent strength and malevolent strength. The benevolent kind is when we demonstrate our good attitude toward one another. like the idea, “friendship wins.”

Question: So you really believe in that simple, childish slogan?

Answer: Without it, nothing good will come out of a sport. There will be drugs, doping, and corruption, people will do anything. Heaven knows what already exists in sports.

Question: If we do not put “friendship wins” at the center?

Answer: Exactly.

Question: I reminded of my early childhood, when I used to be told, “Friendship wins.” They would comfort me when I was a five or six-year-old by raising both my hand and the other child’s hand. Do you think that should apply to professional sports as well?

Answer: Yes. From a spectator’s perspective, I wouldn’t want sports presented in any other way, unless they demonstrated kindness and brought people closer together. The competition between them should demonstrate their struggle against their egoism.

Comment: That is beautiful! In other words, so they realize that they are egoists…

My Response: They demonstrate the struggle against their egoism.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/10/26

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