Kids' sports is not about participation. It's about fairness, and they know it
A nine-year-old I know ran a kids’ fun run last year. It was not sex-separated, boys and girls ran together. It was a one-kilometer route, accomplished with one big loop and one small loop. This nine-year-old is a soccer player, an athlete, accustomed to following the rules. Which she did. Big loop and small loop. But she and all the other kids saw that one kid, who was quite a ways behind, finished the big loop, saw that she was near the finish line which two kids had already crossed, and simply took the shortcut without running the small loop. They all saw it. They all knew that kid cheated. Even the kid who cut the course knew that she cheated, but that kid’s parents told her, ‘No no, you finished third. Go up there and get your award.’ So she did. Holding her stuffed animal prize on the podium, the girl knew and all the other kids knew she cut the course. She cheated. It was not fair and no adult was calling it out. Race organizers may or may not have noticed the infraction—after all, it was only a fun run, kind of a throw away event to lure parents who were running the 5K. The nine-year-old noticed that attitude, too.
Because of that incident, the nine-year-old I know is cooled on running the race this year. Not fun. Because that event recognized and awarded a kid who cheated. They didn’t care about cheating, which, though my young athlete couldn’t articulate it, showed the race organizers didn’t respect the kids or the event enough to ensure fairness.
Kids understand intimately that ANY sporting event, ANY competition, even a fun run, has to adhere to rules, to basic standards of fairness, or else it’s not fun. How many times have you heard adults, particularly those advocating for boys who identify as girls to be able to be able to participate in the girls category, say that kids’ sports are just about participation? An obvious obfuscation, since virtually every kid ever born can participate in the fun run, t-ball, 8U soccer. What those adults mean by “participation” is that, kids’ sports are not important, adherence to the rules is not important, fairness is not important, but what is important is that some kids be able to do whatever they want to. Some kids should be able to choose what category they want to participate in. “Participation” means no rules. Do whatever you want. Run three-quarters of the race while everyone else runs the whole thing. And take the award. They have replaced kids’ sports with a free-for-all affirmation exercise. Which is inherently disrespectful of children.
Children—eight, nine years old—they know this is bogus bullshit. It’s not a game or a sporting event. It’s certainly not fun. And they will decline to participate.
As a post script, since most nine-year-olds in public school are already indoctrinated into gender ideology—the kid they knew as Charles, a boy, they must now call Charlie, because he’s actually a girl—it’s doubtful they would see boys participating in girls’ sports as cheating. Like cutting the course
Thanks Sarah!
We all know that sport is the great teacher of skills used to make the world run: team work, critical thinking, time management, communication, self-analyzation, and ETHICS. Athletes are fully aware of rules: foot behind the line, stay in your lane, no punching below the belt. And they know the process when they believe those rules have been violated: usually it's notification to a race official or organizer. Followed by an investigation and decision. In your scenario those kids knew there was a violation, yet the adults in the room didn't come to their defense. Thus demonstrating to kids that cheating is perfectly acceptable, hell even encouraged. It's a sad reflection of what we have given up in sports. And I shiver to think what sport, as well as corporate America, will look like in the future.
How awful. Those parents are setting up their little cheater for failure in life, if not something worse.