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SOCIAL DIFFERENCE IN SPORT 165

ways old ones are practiced. Cooperation is France, and where the final results are based
integral to the game but equally to how the on the quality of participants’ fancy dress as
game is conceived (e.g., taking it more or less well as their time. The event has more to do
seriously, etc.). with the party atmosphere than with the race,
and participants can taste the local wines and
produce during the run (Bessy, 2000). The
Internet site of the Médoc Marathon (2006)
THE DIVERSITY OF SOCIAL USES OF states that the event is aimed at ‘those for
COMPETITION AND COOPERATION whom sport is synonymous with health,
IN SPORTS enjoyment and conviviality. Anyone dour,
aggressive or obsessed with performance
Competitive sport has very variable practices should stay away’ (my translation). Thus,
which can celebrate confrontation or cooper- the event positions itself in opposition to
ation, depending, of course, on culture. traditional forms of competition, which are
Pepitone (1980), for example, reports that, in considered to be too combative and not
the United States, attitudes toward competi- convivial enough. The Médoc Marathon is
tion vary among children, depending on their not unusual; indeed there is a wide variety of
social background. Those from underprivi- sporting events in which the notion of com-
leged and rural milieux are less inclined to petition is no more than an excuse. The Gay
become involved in competitive activities. Games would be a case in point. These are
Other work has shown that culture influences organized in a number of countries and
the social use of competition. Indeed, for the attach more importance to cooperation and
Navajo Indians whom Allison and Luschen social bonding than to rivalry. These and sim-
(1979) have studied, the main goal of compe- ilar competitions are not about achieving vic-
tition is not to win but rather to affirm group tory over others, but rather in relation to
solidarity. In this example, competition even oneself. This is managed by avoiding com-
elicits embarrassment since dominating petitive situations in which there is only one
one’s adversary and using the body to impose winner while all the other participants are
oneself are not valued in their culture. 7 losers. The approach explains the refusal of
Sports competitions can also serve as the the games’ organizers to adopt the classic
context for an encounter in which the actors model of competition, preferring a different
cooperate for the production of an identity ethos instead. Tom Waddell, a former
(see, for example, Francophone identities in Olympian who started the Gay Games,
Dallaire and Denis, 2000). Thus competition points out that ‘You don’t win by beating
is often a pretext for cooperation rather than someone else. We defined winning as doing
a quest for victory. your very best. That way, everyone is a
If the time-honoured saying that ‘playing winner’ (Messner, 1994: 126).
is more important than winning’ is little more While there is intensive media coverage
than a cliché in major sporting events, it is a for competitive events, sport cannot be
more influential ethic in other sports compe- reduced exclusively to competition and spec-
titions. Thus in most countries there are tacle. It would be wrong to consider sport as
numerous grassroots contests in which the a homogeneous culture and to focus only on
primary motives for participation are such the dominant and mediatized forms of com-
factors as social bonding, conviviality or the petitive sport. There is a diversity of sports
pleasure of taking part in a shared activity. cultures which it would be wrong to ignore,
Competition, therefore, is more a pretext although segregation and sexism in sport fre-
than an end in itself. One need only consider quently result in the devaluation of certain
such contests as the Médoc Marathon, which practices and groups. Sport is also made up
takes place in the vineyards of Bordeaux in of a set of minority practices, far removed