The search for changes in sports is not always a sign of wisdom

By December 2013, Usain Bolt was already a living sports legend.

With two double Olympic triples -100, 200 and 4x100 in Beijing and London- plus five world gold medals, his only stumble in super elite competitions was the false match in the 100 of the Daegu World Cup that opened the door for the memorable victory of his compatriot Yohan Blake.

The same world that had witnessed its best version at the 2009 World Cup in Berlin, wanted to have the Jamaican phenomenon at home and in any format. Argentina and its capital, Buenos Aires, were no exception and Usain was hired for a series of commitments that included a public interview in a theater full of fans and a simulation of a race against an urban transport bus through 100 meters of the so-called Metrobus, a system that had just been inaugurated and allows those same groups to travel on a road independent of other private cars.

A crowd crowded near the Obelisk -that city’s iconic monument- and for several blocks along 9 de Julio Avenue, which crosses the city from the South to the Rio de la Plata. Far from running, Bolt barely jogged throughout that peculiar race: it was the only way not to make a fool of the bus and its driver. Being generous, you could say that it was an exhibition. Being realistic and fair, ‘not even.

In general, with very honorable exceptions and few exceptions, exhibitions are, at best, demonstrations of skills without competitive value, except in the rare case where the protagonists have some pre-existing concern among them.

There are not a few times when those same exhibitions are attractive, entertaining, and even brilliant. It happens, for example, with the Gymnastics Gala at the Olympic Games. The problem is that spectators are rarely warned that, contrary to what always happens in sports, the only thing that doesn’t matter in these demonstrations is the final result.

Nothing bad, except for the cynicism of selling something that isn’t. In addition, unnecessary.

There are exhibitions in basketball and in football. There is in rugby, for example, with a lot of Barbarians games and, with all due respect, some of that happens with certain All Star Games. I insist. Nothing objectionable except to make us believe that there is much more than the pleasure of seeing athletes on the loose, without competitive stress and exposing their talent naturally.

Tennis is perhaps the sport that is most nourished by this phenomenon. So much so that there are even great players who confess that they don’t know how to play exhibitions -relax, have fun, dispense with the score- and not necessarily elite tennis players who are great animators of this type of party.

A few weeks ago, in Los Angeles, the first 2023 stage of the so-called Ultimate Tennis Showdown took place, created by the former coach of Serena Williams and Holger Rune, the Frenchman Patrick Mouratoglou, who designed the show in the midst of the 2020 pandemic.

Surely with the passage of time we will all become familiar with the type of show that is staged, including informal interactions between the protagonists and even musicalization by a DJ. For its creator, it doesn’t make sense for a spectator to pay for a ticket and be forced to remain silent. “I intend to end the stiff traditions of this sport,” he promises.

I invite you to search the networks for images of these meetings and freely draw your conclusions. Perhaps the proposal will coexist with the circuit and the sport that we have known for more than a century. Which, admittedly, needs some Botox-like adjustments

Whether the UTS can displace conventional circuits?

I was once asked how come I wasn’t going to see an exhibition between two of the most renowned tennis players.

“I am convinced that anyone who ever saw Pete Sandras or Martina Navratilova win at Wimbledon doesn’t need a friendly demonstration of skill.”