Sports teach us to win. But they also teach us something scarier: to lose and still remain human. Sportsmanship is not just a loud slogan. It's when an opponent helps you up after a tough tackle. When the world's best player comes to comfort someone who missed a crucial penalty. When fans applaud another team for beautiful football. In a world where everything is about money and ratings, solidarity remains that living nerve that proves: sports are not war, but dialogue.

What is real sportsmanship

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

The first is solidarity between opponents. You helped someone up who fell, you recognized that the referee made a mistake in your favor, you didn't finish off an injured player. The second is solidarity within the team. When a star striker passes instead of shooting to win. When a substitute is happy about a goal by the starter, 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 lost.

Sportsmanship 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 at the limit, get injured, go crazy, and experience the incredible joy of victory.

Great examples: when solidarity defeated enmity

A classic case is the 2014 World Cup final. Gotze scored the decisive goal for Germany against Argentina. The German team did not go wild in front of the crying Lionel Messi. They surrounded him, patted him on the shoulder, respected him. Messi later won the tournament's Golden Ball — 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 who are as tough as nails cried in the arena.

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

Such moments stay 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? The answer: because sports without solidarity turn 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 each other. 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 yell 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 war.

Where solidarity cracks

There is no perfect picture. Sports are full of black holes. Racism in the stands, when a black player is booed with monkey cries. Doping scandals, when mutual accusations destroy trust. Games without spectators due to political boycotts. And the worst — injuries caused by dirty plays, after which a career is over.

Sportsmanship breaks down where money is literally on the line. In the Champions League finals, where the stakes are millions of euros. In boxing, where one punch can kill. In cycling, where the pharmacological war destroyed Lance Armstrong's name. At these moments, many forget about solidarity and remember: "sports are 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 fly ball 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 six years old. And they work. A child who is accustomed to respecting the other person's labor and pain grows up to be an athlete who won't play dirty, cheat, provoke.

Examples: children's tournaments where teams line up in two rows and applaud each other after the match. Youth teams where captains exchange flags and give short speeches about fair play. This may seem 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. Sportsmanship is not about national anthems. It's about not having divisions between "ours" and "theirs" in the locker room. 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 play political games and maintained a human face. The Russian and Ukrainian Olympic teams exchanged pins at the 2018 judo tournament. German and French footballers held up a "We Are Together" sign after the terror attacks. This was not politics. This was solidarity.

The crisis of solidarity in the age of social media

It seems that social media bring people together. In fact, they provoke trolling and hate. After any match, fans write bad things about the losing team's players. 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 media for support. For example, when an opponent loses a close relative, there are condolences in Instagram. When a player receives racist abuse, his colleagues — including those 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, sports turn into gladiator battles. Intrigue, treachery, bites, spits. Viewers get meat, but lose their soul. Look at boxing in the 1990s: Tyson bit Holyfield, viewers spit, and boxing lost ratings. Today's boxing is more gentlemanly, and that's brought back interest.

Without solidarity, children's sports become traumatic. Children copy 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 dressing 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 sportsmanship

You're not a footballer 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 a child with "hatred of the opponent." That'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 a player who made a mistake in the decisive moment. He will be hurt by the mistake. Your support can bring him back to the game.

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

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