We in France have a sporting culture based on school education and state support. In other words, it doesn’t really work. Children who enjoy sport do not have enough time or facilities to live out their passion.
When you reach the stage where some of them want to make it their profession, there are only certain governing bodies that have been set up and very few sports in which they can earn a living from their passion.
Incidentally, it often strikes me that U.S. athletes have a culture of victory that French athletes do not and instead are inclined toward more qualms.
The major difference between our two countries when it comes to taking part in sport is education. France does not, in its educational system, provide for the time, facilities and instructors needed to create the breeding ground from which a sport can be developed.
So, as I see it, U.S. sports is a massively scaled system designed to enable successful careers. It is business designed to enable performance, and it is rules of play tailored to make for the best TV entertainment.
In a sense, you could say that everything is in prime shape: Individuals get what they want from the system, the country gets entertainment, the businessman gets money, the youth get idols and the authorities get international renown for their country.
At the same time, sport does have its shortcomings and, in the United States, with all of the media coverage, sometimes, people tumble from some pretty high places, unable to cope with a society out of control, and when you consider the original values of sport, there is a disparity that really disappoints me.
I grew up with Coubertin in my ears and am often torn between the “what matters is taking part” idea and modern-day marketing, which produces dreams.
Should the line be crossed if it means ensuring that everyone gets what they want out of the system, or should sport continue to represent values and be a means of bringing populations together, rather than fostering cutthroat competition?
For a few years now, I have been wondering about the future of sport, what people are willing to do to push their limits back even further, and the nationalism that certain countries advocate, which hurts the beauty of sport.
American sport remains a glorious show: One that gets the child in me dreaming, but worries the man in me who has awoken. — Philippe Ventadour
