Iga aasta toimub Tallinna Reaalkooli 11. klassidel “Real Cool” kõnevõistlus, kus õpilased panevad proovile oma kõnevõime. Võistlus koosneb viiest etapist. Esimene etapp toimub poolrühmades. Iga õpilane peab ette valmistama viie minuti pikkuse kõne. Selle aasta üldteemaks oli “Relations between nations are too important to be left to governments alone”, eesti keeles “Riikidevahelised suhted on liiga olulised, et neid jätta vaid valitsuse hooleks”. Kõik kõned esitatud, valisime mõlemast poolrühmast kaks parimat. Esimeses poolrühmas võitsid Lisette ja Oskar Pukk ning teises poolrühmas Roosi ja Richard. See nelik läks edasi järgmisesse vooru. Järgmine voor toimus terve lennu ees auditooriumis. Esinejaid oli kokku 12, igast klassist esines neli inimest. Kõik esinejad olid suurepärased, kuid võitjateks tulid Johann 11.c klassist ning meie oma Richard. Richard läbis oma hiilgava kõnega ka mitu järgmist üle-Eestilist vooru ning sai Eestis kokkuvõttes II koha. Palju Õnne!
“Sport has the power to change the world”
When we talk about changing the world, what do we mean by that? How do we change the world? When you think of that phrase, what comes to mind? Is it stopping wars, revolutionary discoveries, scientific breakthroughs, or something else?Whatever it may be, think of what allows these world changing breakthroughs to become a reality? Well, a lot of things, like resources, funding, teams of scientists, experts, etc.However, without one thing, funding a new research project or gathering the team of scientists required wouldn’t even be considered.
That thing is faith.
At the foundation of all breakthroughs is the belief that we can go beyond what we have at the moment and push past our current limits. For that, we need inspiration, and we must have faith that success is possible.Sport gives us faith. It makes what seems impossible at first glance seem very possible, with some hard work and determination. I think each and every one of us who has competed in a sport of some kind knows that feeling that winning a competition or setting a new personal best brings. A new kind of achievement, that makes the last ones that you one day considered insane now seem easy. But what’s important is that after reaching these new heights, we don’t just stop, we think of what comes next. And we think one very important thought… What if? What if I could win an even bigger tournament, what if I can run an even faster time, what if and what if.
Just a few years ago, sports scientists thought that no human could run a marathon in under 2 hours until at least the year 2075. In 2017, Nike organized a project called Breaking2, in which they gathered 3 of the world’s most elite distance runners and set up the ideal race to dip under the 2 hour barrier. Unfortunately they didn’t succeed. The best of those runners, Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya, fell just 25 seconds short. Instead of dwelling on that race, Eliud continued training harder than ever and tried again 2 years later, because he knew it was possible. On the 12th of October 2019, Eliud made history by being the first man ever to go under 2 hours in the marathon. He did this over half a century before experts considered it possible. He showed the world that no human is limited, and gave millions of people around the world faith… and with that faith who knows how many what if’s he sparked in the minds of people around the world, including young kids that thanks to those what ifs may one day become olympic champions.
The next way sport changes the world is by uniting it, by bringing people from all different corners of the globe together. According to official data from fifa, an estimated 3.5 billion people watched matches of the 2018 world cup, with over 1.1 billion tuning in for the final, and the real number is probably much higher, because think of all the people gathered at sports bars, or the people in third world countries coming together at their local food shack. These numbers are truly impossible to accurately measure. There are only 5 billion people in the world who have access to the internet, and approximately a fifth of them were watching the same game on the same day at the same time. I can’t think of any other event that would bring unity of this magnitude. For just a brief moment, we forget our differences, we forget our conflicts, we forget our problems, our undone homework, and we just watch the game.
This unity, the sense that we are one, is truly magnificent, because we can’t evolve if we are full of hate, we can’t evolve if we are at war. We can’t focus on making the world a better place if we have to expend energy and resources on conflict. Anything that brings us even just a little bit closer to peace, is definitely world changing.
In short, whatever you consider world change to be, it simply wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t have faith. Even when experts told him otherwise, and after having failed once, Eliud Kipchoge still believed that a sub 2 hour marathon was possible. If he had listened to the doubters, he would have mentally limited himself before he even tried, which would have negatively impacted his training and his performance.
And the next time you turn on the TV to watch a football game, think of all the people thousands of kilometers away, watching that same game at the same time, and appreciate just how much our love for sport truly unifies us.
Thank you.