Sports Form a Very Important Part of American Culture - Essay Example

College American Sports Sport has always been an activity to improve someone’s physical fitness and acted as a form of entertainment to many people. It brings competition among the participants with an aim of testing the experience that the participants have in the game. There are many types of sports, which are relevant to many people in the different countries. Every sport has rules that must be adhered to during the play. Sports form a very important part of American culture. It is considered one of the importance activities that take place among the American people. The English settlers that settled in the northern part of America came with different types of games. These games were the major part of their culture. They were forms of recreation. Some of the games that they loved included wrestling, horse racing, bear baiting and cock fighting. The settlers also later introduced baseball. This game became exceptionally famous among the people, something that transformed it into professional sport. Leagues were organized and formalized. In early nineteen century, different types of sports emerged. Football emerged at this time. These games strengthen young men. It encouraged them to join combat life due to the exercise they went through as part of the game. Other types of games that came into existence were tennis, polo, rowing and bicycling. However, all these types of sport underwent different changes over time. Improvement of the rules was made and everyone was to follow them carefully. Despite all these changes, sports have gone through many challenges in America since the cold war to the early nineteen sixties. These challenges acted as the blocks that hindered these games from progressing. Many countries at this time used sports events to be the venues of rivalry. They used to show their superiority over other countries. Other challenges included cheating, violence and drugs. During the cold war, many countries used sports to show rivalry to the other countries. Sports were meant for entertainment to the spectators but many political leaders saw sports from a different perspective. To them, sports were a tool to show their superiority. Most Americans who participated in Olympics of 1950s became the major dominants in those games. They won many medals as compared to the other countries’ participants. During this time, Soviet Union did not participate in the Olympics. This made American the favorites in almost all the Olympic Games. There victory caused public concern referring to the international image of the United States (Zirin, 396). The Soviet Union later joined the Olympics games. This caused a great threat to the American participants in the games. Russians won many medals that Americans were used to win. They dominated almost all the Olympic games of that time. The United States and the Soviet Union were not in good terms. They were great rivals in the world during the cold war. This rivalry extended to the sphere of sports that they both participated. Everyone was trying to be superior to the other. Russians defeated American in many games. Russian women defeated Americans in a great range. These made Americans think of other ways of improving their performance. Different leaders who were the heads of the games gave out many ideas. Americans needed to maximize their effectiveness and efficiency in all participations. More improved and modernized management was to be put in place. The whole organization that was heading the participation needed an enlargement and modernization. All these were done to ensure that they defeat the Soviet Union. Americans later defeated them, and it was something that taught Americans that democracy was better than communist system in producing better players (Zirin, 394). During the cold war, reporting sports was influenced by rivalry between the Americans and the Soviet Union. Sports’ reports were biased. Journalists from each country favored the athletes’ of their motherlands. Russian journalist undermined American participants in their reports. Soviet reporters were surprised by the defeat from the Americans but they continued their propaganda. They had the pride to report that their Russian participant won the even if an American contestant had won. They made it worst by reporting that Russian contestant won while American contestant became second last. This report was completely based on the rivalry (Zirin, 395). Their reports appeared in their press, no matter how faulty they were. Their audience did not care if the news were faulty or right. They only loved to hear that they defeated the Americans. These were brought about by the fact that most of the Soviet Union journalist focused on the political side rather than sports competition side. Racism was a major threat in sports development. In 1920, whites Americans and the African American were greatly divided. The only activity that brought them together at some occasions was sports. Sport has a unique feature that can unite people. This is because it can bring together different people who do not share any common feature. African Americans had a league called Negro League of baseball in 1920s. This league was very successful. They played very well and defeated most of the teams in the competitions. They had the best players in baseball, like josh Gibson, Rube Foster, and Cool Papa Bell. Despite their good play, they were financially unstable. This affected their progress when National American leagues were formed. Whites, on the other hand, had more organized league since they had enough capital to manage their teams. Racial action was also seen when the southerners were not invited to the prestigious contest in 1962. They were left behind and what they only did was to dance to their southern games they were used to (Riess, 177). In every game, there must always be a winner and a loser. Winner will always go home very happy. The supporters will praise him or her. Always hard work makes the winner successful. On the other hand, the loser is not happy. Loser may accept the defeat if the game was fair enough. Unfair games may bring violence in the game. Supporters are the one who bring chaos when they notice injustice in the game. This is what affected most of the American games during cold war. Any violence that broke out made many people lose their properties especially when stadiums were destroyed. Many Americans lost their values due to the violence that occurred in the games (Riess, 135). This made many people fear stadiums. Many injuries were reported whenever there was any violence in the playing field. Violence that broke in summer games in Munich made Americans fear participating in most of the games. Palestinian terrorist entered the stadium and killed nine athletes and two police officers. This became the darkest hour in Olympic history. Many American athletes feared the repetition of this. Many players wanted to be strong beyond their capabilities. They tried all the means to make sure that they get more power during their games. This led to introduction of steroids into most of the American games. Steroids were believed to increase the physical strength as well as the intellectual energy. This started in 1920s as most players started using them. Even the famous players as Babe Ruth is known to have injected him extract from testicles off a sheep. This was believed to increase power in the field and even in bedroom. This injection affected him later. He had series of bellyaches and his teammates told the press that he was not suffering from any bellyaches (Zirin, 398). Testosterone was later improved in 1950s and it became common to many players. Many baseball players started using it. It was discovered that players who used these steroids won many competitions. Many parents started giving their children these steroids without their knowledge. This is because they believed that they were going to be successful in the games they were going to play. In Olympics that were held in Germany, it was discovered that more than 10,000 athletes who participated had been given drugs and most of them did not know. Most of them won many medals in the competition (Zirin, 398). In the 1960s, most of the NFL players were using steroids. They locked themselves I their dressing rooms and injected the drug. Some of them confessed that they had used the drug to make sure that they win the game. Injection of this drug became intensive nearly all the NFL players used it. They did not know the side effects of the drug. It later became a deadly hazard among the players. Most of them died of health problems that were associated with the use of this drug. Lyle Alzado is one of the famous players who died of cancer, which was linked to the use of steroids. Many scientists said that if most of the players continued to use the drug, most of them were going to die. Steroids use was known to be very dangerous as compared to tobacco and alcohol. Steroid damaged the lungs, liver, and heart when the users abuse them. It became one of the deadly hazards in the American sports (Zirin, 399). However, sports have grown to great heights in America despite all the challenges it has gone through over time. It is now a form of entertainment to many people in the world. Many people love American games like baseball, golf, cricket, and rugby. Sports are also many sources of capital to many people. Work Cited Zirin, Dave. A People's History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play. New York: New Press, 2008. Print. Riess, S. A. Major problems in American sport history: Documents and essays. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Print. Read More