UKLA Chair blog #25

Are you a class act?

I am sure many of us see elite athletes and coaches and are in awe of their ability and achievements. But we don’t always consider them to be class acts. It is something I have often wondered about it. In our sport how important is it for a sailor or coach to be a class act?

First, what does it mean? Someone who is a class act displays principles, kindness, respect towards others and in sport towards their competitors and opposition. They seem to have a strong moral compass. While they may be super confident, they show humility and aren’t arrogant or disrespectful with their success. You can see why it is appealing.

But do elite competitors need to be a class act? That’s harder to answer but possibly not. Cristiano Ronaldo has clearly been one of the world’s top players but was demoted to the bench when playing for Portugal in the World Cup after showing a poor attitude / disrespect to the manager when being substituted in the prior game. After losing to Morocco in the quarter finals, instead of congratulating the African team, he headed straight off the pitch without so much as a handshake – not much respect there. Of course, we only see Ronaldo through a media lens, so it is hard to judge, but the optics don’t look great. Same is true of Eddie Jones, former England rugby manager or Jose Mourinho, a renowned football manager, both brilliant coaches but always ready to take a dig at the opposition. It may have helped their teams, but not a good look. Then again there was Sir Thomas Lipton who challenged for the America’s Cup five times – he was considered the world’s greatest sportsman for his consistent respect for his competitor and host and because of these attributes, in his later challenges most of America wanted him to win over their countrymen – he never did!

So while being a class act may not a pre-requisite for success or indeed guarantee success, but we would like our sailors to act as one – they are better role models, likeable and something we can aspire to. So we should encourage this behaviour surely. It is something to teach young sailors as they get some success – humility, kindness, and respect to the competition. We can learn to be fierce competitors on the water but still show respect both on the water and ashore. I am sure I wasn’t an angel as a younger sailor but I have got wiser with age. I think we should encourage our younger sailors to strive to be both brilliant sailors and class acts – people will look up to them even more.