The universal language of sports: From Wyoming to Japan

Last week, Sally and I had the pleasure of hosting a couple from near Sapporo, Japan. Like many great friendships, ours began over something simple: hot dogs, lawn chairs and conversation in the backyard.

As the evening unfolded, we learned more about each other’s lives, families and cultures. Hideyuki and Reiko shared stories about life in Japan, and Hideyuki mentioned that he had been an exchange student in the United States during the 1980s, living near San Jose, California. Knowing he had spent time in the Bay Area, I asked whether he followed American football. 

His face immediately lit up.

“I love it!” he said. “I’m a huge San Francisco 49ers fan!”

Suddenly, we had a common language.

For the next several minutes, we talked about Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and the glory years of the 49ers. We discussed last season’s team and their heartbreaking loss to Seattle in the NFC Championship Game. The conversation bounced effortlessly between decades of football memories and current sports news.

Then Hideyuki seemed surprised that we were familiar with Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani. To many Americans, Ohtani is simply the greatest player in baseball today. To many Japanese fans, he is a national treasure. Before long, our conversation expanded to baseball, the Olympics, the NBA Finals and the World Cup soccer tournament that begins today in Mexico City.

For nearly two hours, a group of people from opposite sides of the Pacific sat around a campfire discussing athletes, teams, victories and heartbreaks. We laughed, debated, remembered great moments and discovered how much we had in common.

It struck me that sports often accomplish something that politics, governments and even diplomacy struggle to do. They bring people together.

Sports give us shared experiences. A teenager in Wyoming can celebrate the same Olympic performance as a retiree in Japan. A baseball fan in Tokyo can understand the excitement of a ninth-inning comeback just as well as someone sitting in the grandstands in Denver. The details may differ, but the emotions are universal.

Perhaps that is why major sporting events capture the attention of the world. The Olympics, the World Cup and international competitions create moments when billions of people focus on the same contest at the same time. For a few hours, national borders become less important than the game itself.

That doesn’t mean competition disappears. In fact, competition is the whole point. There is something deeply satisfying about watching the best athletes represent their communities, states or nations. We enjoy seeing our side succeed. We cheer for our colors and our teams.

But unlike many other forms of rivalry, sports usually end with a handshake.

As the World Cup begins this week, billions of people will gather in stadiums, sports bars, living rooms and around campfires. They will cheer passionately for different teams and different outcomes. Yet they will all be participating in the same global conversation.

In a world that often seems determined to highlight our differences, sports remind us of something equally important: our common humanity.

Sometimes all it takes is a football team, a baseball player or a soccer match to help strangers become friends.