Sport teaches to win. But it also teaches something scarier: to lose and still remain a human being. Sports solidarity is not a loud slogan. It's when an opponent helps you up after a tough tackle. When the best player in the world comes to comfort someone who missed a decisive penalty kick. When fans applaud another team for beautiful football. In a world where everything is based on money and ratings, solidarity remains that living nerve that proves: sport is not a war, but a dialogue.

What is true sports solidarity

Don't confuse it with friendship. Friendship is personal relationships. Solidarity is a principle. It's an conscious respect for the common cause, common rules, common humanity, despite the color of the uniform or the emblem on the chest. It manifests itself at three levels.

The first is solidarity between opponents. You help someone up who has fallen, you admit that the referee made a mistake in your favor, you don't finish off an injured player. The second is solidarity within the team. When a star striker passes the ball instead of shooting himself, for the sake of victory. When a substitute is happy about a goal by the main player, not envious. The third is solidarity between players and fans. When fans don't whistle even if they are losing 0:5, and when players go to their stands to bow, even if they have lost.

Sports solidarity has no nationality. A Brazilian can hug an Argentine after a tough final. An American can hug a Russian after a semi-final. Because they both know what it's like to train to the limit, get injured, go crazy, and experience the joy of victory.

Great examples: when solidarity defeated enmity

The classic case is the 2014 World Cup final. Gotze scored the decisive goal for Germany against Argentina. Players of the German national team did not start to scream in front of the crying Lionel Messi. They surrounded him, patted him on the shoulder, respected him. Messi later received the "Golden Ball" of the tournament — and no one argued.

A boxing story: Yevgeny Makarenko and Sergey Derevyanchenko hugged each other and said thank you after a tough 12-round fight. Men in the hall were crying.

A track and field story: at the 2016 Rio Olympics, American Abby D'Ambrosio fell, colliding with New Zealander Nikki Hamblin. Instead of running further, Abby helped Nikki get up. Then they ran together. The International Olympic Committee awarded them a special medal for spirit.

Such moments remain in memory longer than the final score. Because they show that solidarity is the highest form of competition. You can be an enemy on the tatami, but a human being beyond it.

Why solidarity is beneficial to everyone (even winners)

A cynical question: why help an opponent if he will take the medal from you? Answer: because sport without solidarity turns into a battlefield where psychopaths survive. And psychopaths don't play long. Injuries, breakdowns, quitting sports. Look at tennis: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer hated each other on the court. But off the court, they helped, treated injuries, praised. Because they understood: the greatness of one does not cancel out the greatness of the other. On the contrary, it raises everyone.

In team sports, solidarity is about trust. If a partner knows that you won't abandon him under pressure, won't scream at him after a mistake, he will play better. Solidarity creates an environment where you can take risks, make mistakes, grow. Without it, the team will fall apart into stars and statistics.

For fans, solidarity is about safety and culture. English fans and Germans can drink beer together before the match, argue, but not fight. And that's normal. Because football is a game, not a war.

Where solidarity cracks

There is no ideal picture. There are plenty of black holes in sports. Racism in the stands, when a black player is booed with monkey cries. Scandals with doping, when mutual accusations destroy trust. Games without spectators due to political boycotts. And the worst — injuries caused by dirty moves, after which a career is over.

Sports solidarity breaks down where money is literally at stake. In the finals of the Champions League, where the stakes are millions of euros. In boxing, where one punch can kill. In cycling, where the pharmacological war destroyed the name of Lance Armstrong. At these moments, many forget about solidarity and remember: "sport is a war."

But there is a way out. Specific players and federations that publicly speak out against racism, for fair play, for equal conditions. Their voices are weaker than scandals, but they exist.

How to cultivate solidarity from childhood

In good sports schools, the coach teaches not only how to hit a ball from a distance, but also the rule: "If an opponent falls, help him up. If you lose, shake hands. If you win, don't laugh at the loser." These rules are laid down at the age of six. And they work. A child who is accustomed to respecting the other person's labor and pain grows up to be an athlete who will not play dirty, cheat, provoke.

Examples: children's tournaments where teams line up in two rows after a match and applaud each other. Youth teams where captains exchange flags and give short speeches about fair play. This seems like a formality. But a formality repeated a hundred times becomes character.

Solidarity and politics: why they should not be mixed

One of the main problems of modern sports is when political elites demand solidarity from athletes with the regime, the flag, the ideology. And the athletes themselves just want to play. Sports solidarity is not about national anthems. It's about not having divisions into "ours" and "theirs" in the locker room by passport. About a Norwegian skier hugging a Russian after the finish, even if their countries are in a sanctions war.

History knows examples when athletes refused to participate in political games and maintained a human face. The Russian and Ukrainian Olympic teams exchanged pins at the 2018 judo tournament. German and French footballers came out with a "We are together" poster after the terror attacks. This was not politics. This was solidarity.

The crisis of solidarity in the age of social networks

It seems that social networks bring people together. In fact, they provoke trolling and hate. After any match, fans write nastiness to players of the losing team. Even athletes sometimes allow themselves harsh comments about opponents — not at press conferences, but on Twitter. This destroys solidarity. A public slap in the virtual world hurts just as much as a real one.

But there is also a reverse trend. Athletes are increasingly using social networks for support. For example, when an opponent's close relative dies, there are condolences on Instagram. When a player receives racist insults, his colleagues — including from other clubs — post posts with the hashtag #NoToRacism. Solidarity crosses over into numbers. This is a new reality.

What we lose without solidarity

Without solidarity, sport turns into gladiator battles. Intrigue, betrayal, bites, spits. Viewers get meat, but lose their soul. Look at boxing in the 1990s: Tyson bit Holyfield, viewers spat, and boxing lost ratings. Today's boxing is more gentlemanly, and this has brought back interest.

Without solidarity, children's sports become traumatic. Children imitate the aggression of their idols, break each other's hands, mock the weak. Without solidarity, amateur sports die: no one wants to come to a locker room where you are humiliated for a mistake.

Solidarity is the glue that holds the sports community together. Remove it, and everything will fall apart into pieces of egotism.

How each of us can strengthen sports solidarity

You are not a football player or an Olympic champion. But you are a fan. Or a parent of a young athlete. Or just a spectator. Your contribution is simple: don't insult the opponent. Applaud beautiful goals in the opponent's goal. Teach children that losing with dignity is as important as winning beautifully. Don't fill your child with "hatred for the opponent". It's a dead end. Much cooler to say: "They are strong guys, let's try to beat them fairly". Shake hands with the coach of the other team after the match. Write a good comment to an athlete who made a mistake in the decisive moment. He will be hurt by the mistake. Your support can bring him back to the game.

Sports solidarity is not about awards and protocol. It's about a choice. Every day, every match, every whistle. A choice between "I am better than him" and "we are both part of one big sport". Choose the second. And then sport will truly become a school of life.

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