Sportual Identity

Netball in Milan? Photo by Antonia Scott

In an effort to maintain my Aussie roots I've been searching for netball in Milan. Unfortunately the only result of my Google search this far is a post on Wiki Answers where someone has asked "How do you say netball in Italy?” To which someone has replied with: "vaffanculo". Which simply means: fuck off.

Most girls I know in Australia grew up playing netball at school or Saturday comp. Many of my friends still do. Saturday comp in the summer; indoor after work in the winter. In Australia the national and state teams even receive national broadest time, which is quite something for an all-female sport.

I'm not a netball fanatic but when in OZ I like to sub for teams and will even go and cheer on my sister from the sidelines. This got me thinking about how important sports is when determining one's national identity.

Growing up in Sydney Australia we played competitive sports in primary school like netball, softball, touch football, t-ball and kanga cricket. Then there was our annual swimming and athletics competitions. While after school it was tennis and on the weekends it was Saturday netball and Nippers on Sunday mornings at the beach. In high school I remember playing a lot of handball during lunch and tennis. When my family moved to a smaller coastal town surfing was added to the mix. In fact, my final years in high school were spent in classrooms that were half empty when the surf was up.

When home in Australia last month, whether flicking on the tele or seeing them in action, each one of these sports firstly struck an off-base, followed by a very familiar settling - old sock familiar and settling - chord with me. One I let the initial odd feeling rest, which was probably set-off by a year living without exposure to them, each one reminded me of a time, a place, a game, a wave, a friend, a kiss.

Out of all of the above, tennis is probably the only one easily accessible to me now here in Milan though as it's winter I'm yet to see an outside court with a game in action.

As a result, I am almost without these sport triggers that reinforce my Aussieness.

Like an Italian without soccer, the world cup, the stadium riots, the flares and anthems; an American without gridiron, the superbowl, Janet Jackson’s nipple, cheerleaders and hotdogs; or a Brit without cricket, the Ashes, the balmy army, and tea with strawberries and cream, I am an Aussie without my GD bib, without the umpire's weekly fingernail check, without teammates yelling "nice defense!" and "zone her out", without bitching about the opposition, without the endless ringing of the umpire's whistle of "obstruction", without my pulse beating overtime to the adrenaline of competition, mateship and Australiana.

What happens when you lose your cultural sport? Do you lose a part of your cultural identity?

Do you lose your Sportual Identity?

And what happens if you replace it with another culture's sport?

Put an Italian on a netball court, a cricket pitch or even a gridiron field and what happens? Well, I'd hazard a guess and say nothing at first but after a few mavafunculos followed by a lengthy explanation of how to play the game, followed by more mavafunculos, perhaps they'd play the game. Play for the game's sake. They may even feel a bit Australian, American or British while doing so if they played it for an extended period of time. But if they played it for a long period of time without playing or watching soccer would their Italian identity be diluted ever so slightly?

In the long term would they end up with a mixed sportual identity?


An internationista sportual identity? (And as a result be a complete pain to have around during world cup time like me when I go for Australia, Scotland or Italy - depending on who's winning.)