A Sporting Chance

I would like to start off this blog with a sincere hope. If anybody saw the crash today at the Hungarian Grand Prix that involved Felipe Massa and was as shocked as I was, I would very quickly like to send out my hopes and best of wishes to the F1 driver and his family. Although every sport has it's successes and pitfalls, even though it is a spectacle for all of us, there are serious and life threatening risks that these men take when racing. This is why they get paid vast amounts of money... they put their lives on the line at immense speeds for our entertainment and unfortunately suffer the immense pressures and consequences of one slip up. Indeed, as was shown by the slow motion displays of Ricky Hatton getting knocked out by "The Pacman" Manny Pacquiao there is a ridiculous amount of money involved with these sports because the repurcussions aren't simply professional but instead to these sportsmen's lives and we should all remember that. Good luck Felipe.



These sportsmen take on these immense pressures and dangers everyday because they are trying to provide a decent standard of life for both themselves and their family. They train hard, have restrictions on both their physical and social lives as well as doing this all under the harsh scrutiny that society and espeicially the media imposes on their personal lives. Unfortunately, negative press sells newspapers and magazines and instigates more people to google the celebrity in question or buy a copy of heat magazine. We invest our own nationalistic aspirations and sporting hopes on each one of these sportsmen and we are all far too quick to judge each one of these men when either their personal or professional integrity are called into question. Could you bowl any faster than Freddie Flintoff, drive quicker than Fernando Alonso or hit a golf ball as far and straighter than Lee Westwood? I know that I couldn't.



Professional sports allow us all to relate to normal people who are simply very good at a game. This is why we can relate, they are like all the rest of us but for example really quick on a bicycle - well done Marck Cavendish & Bradley Wiggins.