With the advent of more sports betting companies than ever, taking a dive in sport seems more likely than maybe it has ever been. For those of you who don’t know, taking a dive is when the better boxer, speed skater, basketball scorer etc. feigns uselessness to let the other side win. This is done so people who bet on the other side, score a winning bet.
So obviously taking a dive is going to become more lucrative and also more hated in the world of sports. So what of all those divers who always take a dive. Will they, too, become more hated?
“Mr. 10m Diver, are you a good athlete?”
“Why yes I am.”
“Then to be fair to the folks at home you should never take a dive!”
“But that’s the whole sport.”
“Nevertheless…”
And is the athlete who takes a dive while taking a dive, performing a double negative and thus doing something positive? Perhaps they should be praised in the sport. Not so, say my friends in the betting industry but I still wonder.
Will taking a dive be so tarnished in all of sports that life guards would only throw life preservers to those in need? They can’t be seen taking a dive into the water and being seen as unsportsmanlike by all those around them.
Of course, if the drowning person can stay alive for a few more seconds, the life guard can clamber down a ladder into the water and swim out to where they would have dived. This of course puts the onus evenly on the drowning person and life guard to both assist in the life saving.
Still, some might say this increased loss of life would be bad. Obviously they are socialists but let’s hear them out.
Taking a dive could still be a bad thing for all dry land sports. But in the swimming world we would say taking a dive is a good thing. Swimming sports would be kept legitimate. Lives would be saved. The world of sports would be a happier place.
This socialist would like it if the people in swimming sports thanked him for saving the integrity of their sports. You’re welcome. Obviously changing the expression “taking a dive” is not an option.
