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Last year’s winner: sprinter Mujinga Kambundji and king of wrestling Christian Stucki. Image: keystone
commentary
No athlete of the year, that’s a betrayal of the sport
For the first time since 1950, prominent personalities in our sport are not honored. That is the price that sport has to pay to sell its soul. A controversy.
So no female athlete or athlete of the year 2020. Swiss television officially announces:
“Traditionally, at the end of the year, Swiss sports stars are honored as part of sports awards. That will also be the case in 2020. Due to the corona pandemic, for the first time in the history of the award, the focus is not on the most successful sports personalities of the year, but on the best since the award ceremony. That was decided by the sports awards electoral committee, consisting of Swiss Olympic, the Swiss Olympic Athletes Commission, sportpress.ch and SRG. “
So far so good. But behind this dusty ad is nothing short of a betrayal of sport. It is the price that our sport has to pay to sell its soul.
Looking back helps us understand what went wrong. 70 years ago (1950), Swiss sports journalists (female journalists were not mentioned at the time) decided to honor deserving athletes (female athlete of the year with her own category only since 1971). This procedure has been continuously adapted to the demands of the time. But one thing has remained in the center: the choice of the outstanding personalities of the current sports year.
For the first time in 70 years it no longer exists. There is no good reason for this cancellation. Of course, there will be fewer sports activities in 2020 than usual. No Olympic hero has been chosen. Some title fights had to be canceled. But it is almost certain that in 2020 there will be at least as many international competitions as in 1950 when decathlete and soccer star Armin Scheuerer was reduced to Sportsman of the Year.
Fredy Bickel im GC-Dress.
Who was our athlete in 1953? Aha, GC cult forward Alfred Bickel. And in 1960 the honor went to athlete Bruno Galliker. Then he will have a great career as a sports reporter on the state-sponsored Radio Beromünster. And particularly interesting: only from 1971 there was a separate category for female athletes of the year. But already in 1954 (Ida Bieri-Schöpfer), 1956 (Madeleine Chamot-Berthod) and 1966 (Meta Antenen) women were chosen as the outstanding sports personality of the respective year, before all men. Around 1966 there was strong male competition with world rowing champions Melchior Bürgin and Martin Studach or the very popular world motorcycle champion Luigi Taveri.
But who was the athlete of the year in 2020? No idea. There are none. Was there no sport in 2020? But now. But the decision was not made.
What began in 1950 with a single award (Athlete of the Year) has become what is known as an “event.” With seven different awards recently. A long-running television show. It has to be financed. Party, advertising partners, audience ratings. Moderators as important as sports stars. Sport is no longer the main thing. Sport is just one more opportunity to get a stand at the promotional fair. Like so many other events that have sold their soul to the trade.
Last year’s winners:
The prospect (or rather: the danger) that in 2020 no great names but outsiders would have received the honor is great. Roger Federer was not an option. He is also not a king of fighters and probably not a ski star either. No conspiracy theorist, who suspects that out of consideration for the ratings and visibility of advertising logos, the big stars of recent years are celebrated in bundles rather than just a few smaller names of the 2020 sporting year. controversy.
