Sportsmen in politics

One of the things that get highlighted during the local campaign is a candidate’s love for sports or of his or her being a sportsman.

But do sportsmen and women really have an advantage against other candidates when it comes to running for local positions?

Name recall is one that comes to mind easily. But what else? How does one translate one’s free throw percentage to votes? Or one’s personal best in the 21K to leadership?

I think aside from name recall, one advantage political candidates who are into sports over others who are not is their fitness and time management skills. We all know what kind of dedication an athlete needs when it comes to training if he or she wants to succeed or achieve that

personal goal.

But for me, the biggest consideration I take when it comes to sportsmen dabbling in politics is not whether they are active in sports themselves but their attitude towards sports.

If you only see them hold their tournaments during or near the elections, then that’s a good indicator that he’s only a sportsman by name, not by heart. That he’s only using sports to gain votes and not to promote sports itself.

I think we are all familiar with that kind of sportsman, there’s one---or even two—in every town. Tournaments suddenly sprout in that six months before a local election and we all know why such events are being held.

If he or she has been into sports long before he got into politics, or has been actively supporting sports events long before he started wooing votes, then that’s a good indicator that he’s a real sportsman.

And by “supporting sports events,” I mean not just the sports events geared for the “18-year-old grassroots players” A.K.A voters, but events for those who really needs them, the age groupers.

Why use sports as a tool to choose your candidates? Well, that’s better than waiting for who’s going to give the bigger envelope come election time, isn’t it?

We see a lot of “get into sports, not drugs” signs everywhere but rarely do we see people really live that mantra. Some just play lip service. I think this is one way of really living that mantra, by choosing the right kind of sportsmen in the local elections.

If you only see them hold their tournaments during or near the elections, then that’s a good indicator that he’s only a sportsman by name, not by heart.