“Playing to Win” has been around– forever. The ancient Greeks famously “gamified” running, jumping and wrestling in the original Olympic Games. These games were deemed to be so sacred that warring armies would stop fighting so the soldiers could participate in the Games, knowing that the real fighting would resume after the champions were crowned.
Thousands of years later the stewards of the modern Olympic games acknowledged the importance of teams and team work by adding the word “together” to the Olympic motto.
Since the founding of the modern Olympics in 1894, the motto read: “Faster, Higher, Stronger.” Going forward, the motto will explicitly acknowledge the importance and value of belonging. The motto now reads: “Faster, Higher, Stronger– Together.”
It is easy to see how these virtues apply to Olympic athletes at the peak of their strength, skill, and stamina. Unfortunately, ageist stereotypes obscure how neatly these ideals apply to the competitors who make up the Spark Performance League. The League rejects ageist prejudice that solely reserves the virtues of speed, agility, and strength for the young. People who are old can be fast. People who are old can be agile. People who are old can be strong. Aging is a magnificent team sport; elders of every stripe rely on the strength derived from togetherness to help them fashion a life worth living.
Because their outcomes can not be predicted in advance, true competitions require all participants to assume risk. Competitions also serve to clarify and reinforce our identity and purpose. Shared purpose and a solid commitment to rely on each other when times get hard sustains authentic communities. In sports and in life, membership in a thriving, united community is a powerful survival strategy that, over time, strengthens individual members. This truth reveals the lie hidden in the core of the conventional wisdom about aging. American culture insists that older people “stand on their own” and remain fiercely independent. This rhetoric actively undermines community and, paradoxically, makes elders weaker. It turns people away from togetherness when they need it most.
The Spark Performance League uses ancient insights into the connection between competition and community. The League is a nucleus for an ever-growing ecosystem of fans, spectators, and supporters that reaches deep into surrounding communities.