What are we waiting for?

GUERNSEY’S Island Games 2023 has not just inspired our younger generation – we’re all feeling the benefits.

I can’t stop thinking about basketball. This is a most unexpected outcome of the events of last week. I’m watching TV shows about basketball (I can recommend Swagger on Apple TV), checking planning rules in relation to adding hoops to my garden

(I suspect the answer is no) and doing

my best to incorporate the lingo into my daily life.

I aspire to be a ‘hooper’ yet I have no idea where to start, or if elderly beginners with weak joints would be welcome, but I’m desperate to start playing after watching a couple of matches last week. It looks like so much fun.

When many of us were at school, we were quickly categorised into either creative, sporty or academic boxes and over time it was harder to redefine ourselves. There were no teams or groups where we could experiment and learn, rather you were either a natural or not worth bothering with.

Years later at university, I was lucky enough to be part of a college with many teams of varying skill levels, which meant I could finally join in and in the case of football, I even led a team despite being more enthusiastic than I was talented.

I loved playing football on a Saturday morning. The camaraderie, the shouts from the sidelines and the constant logistical struggle as my second team players were poached for the first team when they were short on numbers, leaving us with nine or 10 players on the regular. During that 90 minutes, I only thought about the game. I didn’t worry about my work, my relationships or my future plans and I didn’t feel out of place. I felt part of a unit and my mental health thrived.

It has been harder to play football over time and I really miss it. I have dabbled at surfing, ice-skating and roller-skating in colourful boots as an adult and enjoyed this but we’re simply not encouraged to persevere if we’re just wanting to have some fun and that really needs to change. There are so many benefits to sport beyond winning medals and being part of a sports team is a really positive experience.

A chance encounter the other day with Doug and Dame Mary Perkins of Specsavers (a sponsor of the Island Games) revealed that Dame Mary, chair of the Games organising committee, is taking up indoor bowls off the back of her experience at the Games. This news made me very happy indeed. We both enthusiastically discussed the benefits of adding sport and art (she also sings) into our lives and I am so excited for her new adventure. What a great takeaway from the games.

It seems we are all in agreement that this last week has inspired most of us to do something. Whether that something is taking up a new sport like Dame Mary, trying to recruit a team of basketball novices as in my case, or simply watching and supporting more sport locally, we’ve all seen what happens when we are part of a team and it has cheered even the coldest of hearts.

Brilliantly, Guernsey Arts has also made sure that we connected art with sport over the week, leaving no one out of the discussion and giving us a fascinating personal insight into remote islands all over the world. The works consider what it means to live on an island and how that shapes us as human beings. The cute poetry book has been very much in demand (I can recommend page 51) and has been sent all over the world to inspire others. The art, viewable in person and online, has been powerful and thought-provoking. At the poetry reading last week, poems were being made up on the spot, so inspiring has this week been for all of us.

We’ve benefited from an influx of new faces, accents and activity and after a long few years of doing without, it has injected a fresh new energy into our community. So now it’s time to strike while the iron is hot.

We have seen what happens when Guernsey people are strongly led and empowered to bring a vision to life. Actions and decisions are taken quickly and we work well towards a clear and common goal. There were many ways to run this event but one was chosen, and boy did the team deliver! Rather than complain about how they might have done it better, our community supported the decisions made and did their best to make it work. Our journalists provided positive and uplifting coverage to support our competitors and volunteers and keep us all in the loop and we all adapted to help make things work.

I don’t know how much economic value the past week generated for our island but it will have far outweighed the cost of the games. Competitors are keen to come back and we are keen to see them return. There are plenty of groups eager to host other key sporting events. Surfing tournaments, golfing events and sailing races could be in our future and many other sports have great ideas for how to attract people to our little island.

As I drove into Town the other night, a child being carried on a bike in front of me was enthusiastically waving at a team of competitors walking along the path. Imagine if this became a regular occurrence for our children – the excitement from regularly seeing people from other countries and cultures performing sports they love at the highest levels. That kind of contact inspires children to travel, learn languages and take up sport. It encourages them to want to stay or to come back to the island as adults.

We have plenty of space to build the courts and other facilities that we need to be taken more seriously on the world stage. We have proven that we can generate income from well-directed investment into sport and art and that it has a knock-on effect on both tourism in general and also our islanders’ health and appetite to get involved. Sport and the arts are critical to our mental health and open up creative streams that lead to innovation and growth.

We are so lucky to live where we do. This last week has reminded us of that. We’re also not maximising our potential by only focusing on narrow definitions of economic growth. There is more to life than money and, interestingly, if we stop chasing the money and instead chase the thrill, the passion, the inspiration, the creativity and the pure joy that comes from sport and the arts, the money will start chasing us.

So far – the debate has yet to begin as I type – the States is not taking advantage of the high we are all still feeling after a week of seeing the healing and energising impact of sport and cultural diversity. This is not the time to reduce funding in sport or the arts, this is the time to be fuelling our creativity. A commitment by the States right now will encourage others to invest and support projects and sponsor our teams. It will tell islanders of all ages that sport is important, it is never too late and that by expressing yourself by moving your body, working as a team or creating something new, it will inspire you in other ways.

This week we all embraced our curiosity and whether through sport or art or the simple act of togetherness, we have been inspired to keep going, to do more.

Participation in sport and the arts is scientifically proven to be critical to the health of populations and their economies. Letting Guernsey people lead and use their inspiration to make positive change will create world-class athletes, artists, writers and inventors and most importantly, make us happy.

What are we waiting for?