In any sport, every professional has a desire to win. The high stakes that come with sacrificing years of their life for the sport mean that everyone has a hunger to win, a desire so ingrained within them, they often struggle to describe the feeling. Elite athletes certainly respect each other: after all, there few who can understand the unique life of a professional athlete. However, this never negates the dream to win. The growth that comes from losing is only possible when there is a strong motivation to succeed. Elite athletes push themselves through years of gruelling training for the dream at the end of it all: to win.  In the men’s high jump final in the Tokyo Olympics, there was a great display of sportsmanship between Barshim from Qatar and Tamberi from Italy. Tied at the same height, they agreed to share the gold medal, making them both winners.  Shows of mutual respect emerge when athletes are standing on the podium. Until it is over, they are rivals. You’ll never hear a top athlete say that winning isn’t important - they couldn’t reach the world stage if they truly believed that. 

Whether we as fans like it or not, sport is a business and the cost of losing is immense. For example, Blackpool football club rose to the premier league in 2010 but were relegated again after just one season. Relegation to league one followed and then a season later, they were back down in league two. 27 players left in one transfer window, fans rioted, they lost their sponsorship deals and were nearly liquidated. In contrast. Winning brings with it new sponsors, players and fans, and most importantly, more money. For lower league clubs, winning allows promotion to fully professional leagues, bringing more money and stability to the players and owners alike. The sporting world is ruthless at times. It is quite simple: if you don’t win, you’re out of a job. The most successful clubs are able to attract more money from sponsors and investors, allowing them to spend more money improving the club, bringing in better players and management, thus more wins and more fans. This creates a cycle of winning, allowing constant improvement within a club and turning the team into serial champions. This is the same for any sport, from football to fencing, they are all reliant on winning for investment and growth.

Winning also gives you a platform to bequeath a legacy.  Many sports stars have a desire to do social good - inspire the next generation, to speak on an issue close to their heart, a particular injustice. But none of this can happen without winning. When Lewis Hamilton is raising awareness about Black Lives Matter or condemns LGBTQ+ discriminatory laws everyone is listening, but no one is interviewing Nicholas Latifi (the least successful F1 driver in 2022) to find out his views.  You need a platform to speak from, and winning provides the largest platform of all. The inspiring Lionesses win in the summer of 2022 made them the most successful English football team in recent history.  They later worked with the government to provide a £600 million school sports package. This is part of their legacy that will live on for generations, inspiring girls to get into sport. But without their success that wouldn't be possible. Since the Women's Euros everyone in the country knows their names, including our prime minister. We should never underestimate how important winning is in being a catalyst for social change and creating a legacy that will live on. 

In a competition of who produced the most famous sporting cliches, Baron Pierre de Coubertin surely loses out to Vince Lombardi, the famous American football coach. In sports changing rooms everywhere, his words are written on the walls. “Winners never quit and quitters never win” and “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.” I doubt de Coubertin’s words resonate in the same way as a motivating factor for aspiring athletes. Winning will always be the most important thing in sports - for the athletes, for business and for the legacy that comes with it. In Lombardi’s words “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”