Part 1 has five moments from 10th best sportsmanship moment to 6th best. This is Part 2, which reveals the 5th best moment to the number one sportsmanship moment of 2019.
By the way, you can also listen to all of these Top 10 stories on BBC Radio London’s annual interview with PR Smith, hosted by Phil Parry. Click the ‘play’ (the red arrow) below.
In 5th Place: CRICKET Historical Rivals Party Together
There’s a bit of history between these two countries. Despite this, fans from both countries partied together and showed great friendship and unity. The Pakistani captain, Azhar Ali, saw both fans partying the day before and said “Sport builds bridges between countries. Let’s all enjoy tomorrow’s game, rivalry is a beauty of #PAKvIND but it’s a great event which involves lots of emotions. Let’s all respect it and celebrate the occasion. Looking forward to it. May cricket and peace be the winner.”
In 4th Place: RUGBY WORLD CUP Japanese Hospitality & Irish Applause
2019 was a RWC year in Japan starting in September and ending in November. The Japanese proved themselves to be absolutely wonderful hosts. So many many stories of outstanding Japanese hospitality. My pal, Johnny Mullarky, told me stories of incredible Japanese kindness (and fun). Everyone talked about how the Japanese bent over backwards to help fans and how the Japanese were so friendly and so much fun…. But this, particular moment of sportsmanship occurred after Japan had a well-deserved, yet never-the-less shock-win over Ireland. So the Irish fans’ response was to congratulate the Japanese fans with songs such as: ‘Stand up for the Japanese’ and ‘Shoes off for the Japanese’. The Japanese fans loved it. See Irish fans singing ‘Stand up for the Japanese’ on video.
In 3rd Place: BOXING: Beaten British Champ Posts Instagram Congrats to Mexican Winner
You can’t talk about sportsmanship without mentioning boxing and in particular, Britain’s Heavyweight World Champion, Anthony Joshua, who is the perfect role model as he always shows great respect to his opponents in both victory and defeat. So, after Joshua’s shock defeat by the Mexican, Andy Ruiz Jr. in Madison Square Gardens New York on 1st June, Joshua wrote in his Instagram post “This is Andy’s night, congratulations champ”.
Then after the rematch (in December) which Joshua won, Joshua hugged Ruiz and spoke intimately with him. Regardless of whether you like Joshua’s style of boxing, he is always humble in victory and gracious in defeat. He is a world champion who brings a lot of honour and respect back into sport.
In 2nd Place: A Story Of Hope for The Rainbow Nation from A Once Hungry Kid
This is the extraordinary story of Captain Kolisi. Imagine this: 12 years ago a poor and hungry 16-year-old kid, whose mother had just died, sat in the corner of a townland bar in South Africa watching the Rugby World Cup final 2007 (SA v Eng). That kid’s name was Siya Kolisi. 12 years later, that same kid Kolisi, lifted the RWC up as South Africa’s first black captain.
Before the final, Kolisi said: “We have many different races in our country, and we have 11 official languages. It’s one of the positives in our country. It’s really beautiful – that’s why we’re called the Rainbow Nation. We have different races in the team as well, which is really beautiful. and I think it’s very important for the country, for us, to do well” says Siya Kolisi.
It was so important, that that the previous South African Rugby World Cup-winning captain, John Smit (2007) said that if Siya touches that trophy on Saturday… I tell you, it will be a far greater moment than 1995 (when Nelson Mandella presented the cup to Francois Piennar). It would change the trajectory of our country.”
So maybe now Nelson Mandella’s famous comment ‘Sport Has The Power to change the world’ – yes maybe, just maybe now his great vision will start to come true in South Africa….. a great story of hope. See Captain ‘Colossus’ Kolosi’s full story, We Can Achieve All Our Dreams – even a hungry 16 year old’s RWC 2019
In 1st Place …. The Man Who Broke the 2 Hour Marathon says:
‘No Human Is Limited’ and ‘We Need to Love our Whole Human Race’.
So this is it. The number one sportsmanship moment of 2019 was in the inspirational words from a unique athlete …..Eliud Kipchoge Something happened in sport this year which is probably the most special moment in sport this year, this decade, this century in the world of sport and sportsmanship. Some described it as the ‘the sporting equivalent of landing a human on Mars’. BBC Sport described it as ‘one giant leap for humankind’. The athlete involved said: “Today we went to the Moon and came back to earth! I am at a loss for words for all the support I have received from all over the world.”
On 11 Oct 2019 Kenya’s, Eliud Kipchoge, had the hand of history on his shoulder when he smashed the 2-hour barrier in the marathon in Vienna (1hr 59min 40sec). Kipchoge is humble – he still takes his turn to clean the training facility toilets. His speech at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards was also unique and inspiring. Eliud Kipchoge said “I proved them wrong by running and breaking the two-hour barrier. It means that no human is limited. We need to actually remove our limitations in our minds whether it be in class or our offices. You know, in this world you don’t live alone. We need to love our whole human race.”
Inspirational words from an inspirational athlete whom we hope will inspire a new generation to ‘remove our limitations’ – a nice new year’s resolution!! See the full story ‘No Human Is Limited’ says the Man Who Broke the 2 Hour Marathon Barrier.
—end—
If you like this you might also like:
‘No Human Is Limited’ says the Man Who Broke the 2 Hour Marathon Barrier
We Can Achieve All Our Dreams – even a hungry 16 year old’s RWC 2019
Part 1 has five moments from 10th best sportsmanship moment to the 6th best
You can also listen to all of these inspirational Top 10 stories on BBC Radio London’s annual interview with PR Smith, hosted by Phil Parry.
Search for other stories categorised by ‘Sport’ or by ‘Country’ – see the right-hand column.
Join us Become an Ambassador of the Great Sportsmanship Programme
Tell us your story – send us your story or just post a comment (see ‘leave a reply’ below).
Share our stories – this is important – please do share our stories – it helps to change the world, little-by-little.
These are wonderful stories full of hope and inspiration. They show us that we have the capacity to rise above the basic instincts of tribalism that often hold us back and limit our abilities to make the best out of the lives we live. The human spirit can be very generous. We need more of that.
Yes we do need more of this Gerry. We shall continue to spread inspirational sportsmanship stories across the world using all our social media platforms and story-telling sessions. Many thx for your comment.
Fantastic list. Beautiful moments in here and some wonderfully inspiring stories!
Thanks Aodhagan and they just keep coming……. did you see the Italian international rugby player who is driving covid patients in an ambulance