Holding The Aces

With the Olympics looming later this year, the question is not whether black runners will dominate the medals table it s which black runners will take gold in each event. Indeed, the only non-black men s runner who s likely to start as favourite for a gold medal is the Algerian, El Garrouj in the 1,500 metres and he ain t exactly white, now is he?

In women s athletics, the position isn t as cut and dried there are Hungarians, Russians and Portuguese, for example, who seem capable of trading on equal terms with their black sisters-of-the-track. But the rise of black power in this sphere is evident too and the probability is that the trend will continue, social context permitting.
In football, the tableau has also shifted completely. The British game has undergone a transformation, with black players gradually establishing a presence on the pitch which is proportionately far higher than their representation in the UK population as a whole. And the French team which won the Euro 2000 tournament underlined the fact that this is beginning to be a Europe-wide phenomenon: six of the fourteen players who appeared for them in the final are black Thuram, Desailly, Viera, Henry, Wiltord and Trezeurget. That s over 40%.
Still, there were some bastions of white sporting dominance, to give comfort to the Aryans amongst us. Like golf and tennis and rowing perhaps.
Now I m not a big tennis obsessive but when Wimbledon came around this year I got interested. The women s game has always been more entertaining; free of the curse of power-serving, the players are capable of actually keeping the ball in play, giving subtlety, delicacy of touch, intelligence, vision and tactical nous an opportunity to shine through, alongside the essential athleticism required at the highest level.
It wasn t just the prospect of seeing the awful Saint Mary Pierce being soundly beaten that stirred the imagination. No, this tournament was about the final breakthrough of the black American sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, into prime position on the centre court. Now blondes have been big in women s tennis for a long time: from the great Martina Navratilova through Steffi Graf and on to Monica Seles and Martina Hingis, the game has been dominated by bleached Europeans. Well, all that has changed and changed utterly. If the Williams sisters have anything to do with it, the future of women s tennis will be black.
Watching them in action at Wimbledon, you had a sense that they might have the ability to raise expectations in women s tennis to a new level. It isn t just the power that Venus displayed in winning the Wimbledon singles title: there was a hunger, and a desire to prevail, that was evident in her approach, which saw her chase what might have seemed like lost causes and transform them into points won. Underlying that capability is a remarkable athleticism: Venus gets around the court in a manner that is quite extraordinary.
Their facile victory as a rookie team in the Women s Doubles suggests that Venus and Serena can go on to dominate that discipline for just about as long as they like. Thus, the real burning question over the next few years in women s tennis is most likely to be: can little sister Serena upstage the stronger and more experienced Venus.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, or in the compounds at any rate, the likelihood is that black American girls will be donning their whites and getting their shit together knocking tennis balls against the wall. They ve got role models now, a pair of them in fact, and the interest in tennis will inevitably soar. So don t be surprised, if in five years time, 40% of the women making the grade at Wimbledon, turn out to be black.
In golf, the extraordinary achievements of Tiger Woods in the course of establishing himself as the undisputed World No. 1 are likely to have a similar effect. More than most sports, professional golf is a money game so it ll take longer to filter through, but the seeds of change have been sown. And as Sam Cooke said, I know a change is gonna come. Oh yes it will!
This is a good thing on two fronts. On the one hand, there s the fact that it ll get up the noses of racists everywhere. But, more seriously, alongside music, sport is potentially one of the keys to breaking down barriers of unfamiliarity, suspicion and prejudice. Underlying the kind of low-level racism which many ordinary Irish people seem, at times, to reflect is an intangible feeling that has to do with fear of the other .
That s a feeling that s unlikely to affect a generation weaned on the sight of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole banging in the goals for Manchester United. And in the same spirit, in terms of role models, even here the impact of the rise of Venus and Serena is likely to be very substantial.
When fear of the other dissolves, there s nothing left for racism to hang onto. The truth is that familiarity, in this arena, breeds not contempt but respect.
That s where we re going. And if you don t like it, well you can lump it.
Sure isn t that what Aryan footballers have been doing recently anyway.