Pandemic Revives the Spirit of Homo Ludens

AP PHOTO/FRANK FRANKLIN II

Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, left, serves to Ricardas Berankis, of Lithuania, in an empty stadium during the second round at the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, in New York. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the face of world sports, including the elimination of spectators, throughout 2020.

In a term popularized by British Queen Elizabeth II, the year 2020 can be referred to as annus horribilis (terrible year), in which the world of sports is no exception. The Covid-19 pandemic has paralyzed nearly all competitions as the stage of athletic achievements and source of entertainment. Hardly had the trouble been overcome when the global soccer public lost its well-known icon, Diego Maradona, at the end of November.

The pandemic makes the famous expression “football is much more important than a matter of life and death” of Liverpool club legend Bill Shankly (1913-1981) now sound utopian. Nothing is greater a matter than that of life and death, though sports fanatics may have their own view on this as they look at lifeless “ghost” arenas, void of spectators, which have been commonplace in sports throughout 2020.

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Without audience restrictions, sport arenas would be biological weapons at this time of pandemic. This was seen at the match of Atalanta versus Valencia in Milan, Italy, on 19 February. Epidemiologists called the match of the European Champions League’s big 16 a game zero or the epicenter of the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, especially in Italy.

More than 44,000 supporters, including a third of Bergamo citizens, were present at San Siro Stadium to watch the match that was won by Atalanta 4-1. The Bergamo residents were hugging and kissing to celebrate the historic victory. It was the kiss of death, the term used by Mario Puzo in his novel, The Godfather, about mafia life in Italy.

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Sports arenas are indeed prone to SARS-CoV-2 transmission. A number of renowned athletes, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr, Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic and Valentino Rossi have been infected with Covid-19, even though they are protected by very tight health protocols. It is understandable, then, that all national sports competitions like Indonesia’s League 1 and the National Basketball League (IBL) have been temporarily suspended.

AFP/MIGUEL MEDINA

Atalanta fans cheer during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg football match Atalanta Bergamo vs Valencia on February 19, 2020 at the San Siro stadium in Milan. This match was touted as the initial epicenter of the massive spread of the new coronavirus in Europe, especially Italy.

Different perspective

The pandemic has changed the face of sports, depriving it of the element often considered its soul: the spectators. However, there’s always a blessing behind a disaster. The pandemic has prompted many people to view sports from a different perspective. They no longer become mere objects (spectators), but they are actively thronging as subjects of sports.

Over the last several months, our social is loaded with photos of colleagues and family members demonstrating private sports activities ranging from cycling and running to yoga. Such abruptly popular activity is seen as an “oasis” in the pandemic.

I do sports, therefore I am.

The witty saying, “I do sports, therefore I am,” thus, seems to have replaced the existentialist statement cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) popularized by René Descartes.

This new (but old) phenomenon was precisely described by a historian and cultural theorist from the Netherlands, Johan Huizinga. In his book, Homo Ludens (Man the Player, 1938), Huizinga views humans as creatures that are actively engaged in sports. The instinct has always followed human civilization and survived all hard times, including the pestilence pandemic in the Middle Ages and the Spanish flu in 1918.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Residents of the capital city of Jakarta take advantage of the weekend by cycling on Jalan Sudirman, Central Jakarta, Sunday (29/11/2020). Many cycling activities were carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unlike in this modern era—when sports are commercialized and more regarded as an entertainment industry that turns out such celebrities as Maradona and Ronaldo—sports in the past was seen as daily activity, even human culture. Ancient Greeks, for instance, considered sports a catalyst to maintain balance between the body and the mind. According to Plato, sports are even the key to education and the advancement of civilization (Heather L. Reid, Athletics and Philosophy in Ancient World, 2011).

In Japan, martial arts fuse into daily life and are believed to form the collective mentality of citizens, imbued with social compliance, perseverance, resolution and shame culture. The character born out of the values of sports is needed by all mankind, including citizens of Indonesia, to survive the long ordeal of the pandemic, the impact of which seems to linger until the end of next year.

Parallel to this, Tokyo Olympics 2020, which is delayed for a year and slated for 23 July-8 August 2021, will become a lighthouse of modern men’s awakening to cope with the pandemic. That is because, as once pointed out by the gold medalist skier of the Winter Olympics of 2006 in Turin, Jennifer Heil, sport is the unsung hero for the mental health of mankind.