“There is always room in the heart for more.” Nelly Sachs is quoted in the morning devotion on the radio that it's Christmas time.
And no matter what belief, the message of the vastness of the heart is part of every world religion.
And - now we come to sport - also an urgent appeal to all rational agnostics and atheists in this community, which is facing a difficult time with the coming year.
Wide hearts, the view and the concern beyond your own front yard are not very popular at the moment.
The Olympic Games are scheduled to begin in Beijing on February 4th. For hosts whose trademark is defining and monitoring the dimensions of each room. Individual freedom? Best not at all. And here are women athletes supposed to toboggan, ski down and skate for gold, silver and bronze as if nothing else matters?
The smaller the materially rich and morally poor International Olympic Committee made itself before the dictatorship, the louder it cheered that the Internet was activated on the bobsleigh run, while, for example, most recently at the University of Hong Kong, the massacre on Tiananmen -Place in the heart of the Olympic host city 32 years ago reminding memorial ("Pillar of Shame") was cleared, the greater the problem for athletes. At least for those who discover in their hearts a longing for space that goes beyond the training plan. They are confronted with the question of how to behave if they are sent to an opening ceremony where the two men are waiting for them in the stands who put them in this position: Xi Jinping and Thomas Bach.
Similar questions will arise at the end of the sporting year when the World Cup begins in Qatar. If you want to find convincing answers to the question of how wide your hearts really are in the face of a tournament that takes place on the backs of exploited migrant workers, you have to take into account the flood of PR messages with which this tournament will also be accompanied by the International Football Association . FIFA, as its President Gianni Infantino confirmed just a few days ago when he next presented his idea for a World Cup tournament every two years, seems to move the amount of the account balance and the depth of the pockets much more than the width of the heart. “The cake will only get bigger,” says Infantino, and promises $ 4.4 billion more in the first four years.
The cake is just getting bigger? It sounds very different for the German sports industry. Leagues in spectator lockdown, prospects uncertain given Omikron. But here, too, there is room for more in the heart, especially in the pandemic. She has made the value of sport clear to many, when the joy of movement, whether alone or in a community, creates a spirit that actually widens the heart.
But the plight of the clubs, which, completely independent of Corona, are dependent on people voluntarily giving themselves a push, getting involved, taking on tasks to make others happy, it will stay beyond the next wave.
The trend towards self-optimization goes hand in hand with the individualization of leisure time.
More space for the self makes the heart narrow.
A little more space and we see the other player, the man next to us.
He and you may be worse off.
Worries can be shared.
But they are definitely looking forward to a game together.
Everyone can make the coming sporting year a good one.