The slogan “Glory and Excellence” is the basis of the DNA of Université Laval’s sports program and, more broadly, of all sports federations. It goes without saying that they are fueled by the success of their student-athletes, success which materializes through the sporting merits and, to a lesser extent, through the academic merits of their standard-bearers.
On the page of its program, we can read that “this conquest of excellence is lived and done daily by the student-athletes of the program, as much on the competition areas as on the school benches. All now adhere more than ever to this principle and pursue the same goal, that of being part of the best university sports program in the country”.
This Thursday, May 5, all the “conquerors of excellence” are invited to participate in the Gala Rouge et Or, an annual event constituting the crowning achievement of the last academic year. This meeting allows the various student-athletes to remember the successes of their teammates in a collective spirit that transcends the often obvious borders separating the various sports clubs of the Rouge et Or.
However, it would not be a sporting celebration without a competitive dimension. What’s the point, aren’t we all beings who love competition? Indeed, the Gala Rouge et Or derives most of its excitement and excitement from the few prizes offered during the ceremony.
What is Excellence?
It’s a little more than five athletes who manage to “conquer excellence” in this final evening which serves as the finish line for a competition which has implicitly taken place throughout the year. By taking part in the Gala, the overwhelming majority of athletes necessarily comes to witness the consecration of their defeat in the few rewards of the festivities. Besides the colors of Rouge et Or, we are, in doing so, almost all united in defeat. At these words, the dynamic of the show seems to leave a bitter taste. If all [les étudiants-athlètes] adhere now more than ever” to the principle of glory and excellence, why put only a handful of individuals in the spotlight and leave everyone else in the dark?
You will tell us that these few athletes embody the fundamental values of the Rouge et Or and deserve, through their accomplishments, to shine at the expense of those who do not reach the same level of excellence. You will tell us that these athletes deserve to obtain substantial recognition, since their results are necessarily the result of a talent development process that combines unparalleled sacrifice, application and effort. You will tell us that these few athletes contribute to the development of the greatest number, that the majority benefits indirectly from their leadership and their determination, to such an extent that greater glorification of these leaders benefits everyone.
Admittedly, if these justifications seem elevated to the rank of dogma in the sense that they seem to be continually repeated and assimilated by athletes wishing to explain the sempiternal portrait of winners of prizes at the Gala, and, more broadly, of scholarships and other rewards offered by the Rouge et Or, we want to use our platform to weigh the merits of these commonly accepted practices and conventions. What is Excellence? What values should be valued within any sports federation?
Although excellence takes precedence among the fundamental values of sports federations, this notion does not seem to have been the subject of reflection for some time. A de facto expression of the immutable paradigm of success as understood by the Université Laval sports program, excellence only corresponds to a very narrow and fixed definition. In this logic, it is possible to evaluate the success of an athlete in the light of his level of excellence essentially appreciable in the light of his sports performance. This necessarily objective examination determines the reigning hierarchy within the sports federations, since excellence takes the lion’s share of the main rewards offered by their programs.
A much wider spectrum
On the other hand, it is not satisfactory to put forward a shortcut between excellence and success: these two concepts are not interchangeable synonyms. In our view, excellence should be part of the spectrum that combines all expressions of success, rather than unilaterally coloring our collective understanding of this concept. Success celebrates perseverance and daily effort. Success greets the different paths leading to varied objectives, certainly, just as valid. Achievement commemorates all forms of success and all victories, whether lavish or unnoticed.
That being said, let’s be clear, our wish is not to eradicate excellence in high-level sport, but to relocate it to the same level as other values such as perseverance, ethics, fairness or justice. It is high time to stop for a moment and ask ourselves what definitions do we want to give to excellence and achievement, what values do we want to promote in sport and, finally, on what pillars do we want to build our programs, our federations and our communities. By its very nature, sport represents a vector of hierarchy.
However, if rankings are an integral part of high performance sport, we can reassess the way we recognize sporting success across a more inclusive spectrum of success. At the dawn of the Gala Rouge et Or focused on excellence, isn’t it in the advantage of the greatest number of people to reorient our annual celebration of university sport towards a more encompassing form, even if it means repealing the current prizes at the profit from an egalitarian and community commemoration of the many meritorious facets of the Rouge et Or?
*Also signed this letter:
Jonathan Tedeschi, student-athlete (middle distance) in Philosophy
Catherine Beauchemin, student-athlete (middle distance) in Medicine
Jade Bérubé, student-athlete (middle distance) in Criminology
Claudine Nafaa, student-athlete (pole vault) in Visual and Media Arts and in College Education
Mamadou Bazan Togola, student-athlete (sprint) in agro-environmental engineering