ON DOING "WE'S": Where Sport Leaks Into Everyday Life

McHoul, A. (1997) ON DOING "WE'S": Where Sport Leaks Into Everyday Life. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 21 (3). pp. 315-320.

Abstract

Coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics on Australian television was dominated by images and sounds of Laurie Lawrence, coach of Australia's only male gold medal winner, two hundred meter swimmer Duncan Armstrong. Lawrence's body and brain were analyzed, depicted, cut up, slowed down, and repeated more than his charge's, a reaction to the fact that he screamed, cried, and dove into the pool during the medal ceremony (Miller, 1990). I am especially interested here in the moment when the camera pans to the coach as he leaps to his feet and shouts, "We won! We won!" At once, this is spectacular - at least for the moment - and also a very ordinary (perhaps even forgettable) every day event. But is there something in its ordinariness that turns out to be very important for understanding sport and culture? If so, then an ethnomethodological treatment can bring this out.