This one is a bit of a taboo subject to discuss as many people get very emotional over it, but I genuinely believe it's worth discussion.
Every year there's the inevitable post of 'there's more injuries this year than there ever have been before'. There's obviously 1 year that that's been true, however in reality it just isn't true (especially if you decided to remove Adam Roynon from the official figures!) and safety has come on leaps and bounds even since I've been going for the last 15 years or so. In a way, these comments are insulting to those improving safety within our sport. It needs to stop, if for no other reason than to stop giving fuel to the people who suggest everything was better in the old days, when injuries especially certainly weren't.
There's an obvious case study that I'm going to use that sums up pretty much everything good and bad about the speedway community when injuries occur, and that's Darcy Ward. I always appreciate comments on my blog, so feel free to discuss what I'm going to write however keep the death threats to a minimum if possible!
Injuries do happen, it's a part of our sport that none of us like, however if there wasn't a certain danger element would riders and fans get the same rush they get now? It will never be totally safe so that's sort of a moot point but it's worth considering.
Ward was a rider who split the speedway community prior to injury. There were the 'Wardettes', the lovers of all things Aussie and especially Ward and those of us, like myself, who couldn't stand the guy. The one thing that neither side can deny is that the bloke was a genuine talent on a speedway bike and the fact we won;t see him back on one IS a loss to the sport.
After his injury there was a lot of mud slinging from both sides. Firstly, there were the Ward fans who started lashing out at those who have spoken about Ward negatively in the past. This is never the answer after serious incidents occur. I appreciate it's an emotional time for people who either know riders personally or who are emotionally attached to the sport and it's stars, but it's not the way to react and no one ever comes out of it feeling good. I learnt this the hard way after the loss of Lee Richardson. As a big Lee fan, it was hard to read people who I know actively disliked him posting heartfelt messages and pretending they were always a fan (I'll come to that later) and I started lashing out with my online comments. In reality, all it did was make me hurt more and didn't help vent any anger at all after the event. At time like this the speedway community always comes together, however the points scoring always has to take place prior to this which is not the way to go about it and I would recommend for any readers of this who face a similar situation in the future to leave it a while before they hit the net or start posting for everyone's benefit.
Ward was not a rider I, or many others, liked for a number of reasons. Should that mean that we are guilt tripped into saying nice things about the man just because of the injury? Of course it doesn't. Yet either one of 2 things happened, either people were guilt tripped into saying things they didn't mean post the event, or they became complete hypocrites and decided to join the we love Darcy club just because of the injury. I don;t know which category the majority fall into. I believe the age old saying is 'if you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing'. For anyone who knows me, I don't believe in this saying, but it's something worth considering in these circumstances so that fans of that rider aren't upset anymore at the time.
Following Ward's injury, another injury occurred to Vitaly Belusov, prompting a snidey group of people to start asking whether the same amount of coverage and fund raising efforts would be made for his cause as there were to Wards, including some ridiculous tweets to Nigel Pearson about the issue. OF COURSE NOT. You wouldn't expect the same level of media coverage following the death of supporting cast members from dead poets society as there was for Robin Williams.
I'm a man who with everything in life has to consider 'what's the point' before I do something, and for that reason I don't quite understand the 100s of posts I saw on twitter featuring things like someone drinking out of a Darcy mug with the hashtag #staystrongDarcy as I know if I was Darcy that would be doing my head in, but I suppose it's each to their own!
The speedway world did come together for Ward and whilst some of it felt like overkill (not every race for eternity can have been done for Darcy - it is their job!), some of it was genuinely heartwarming and I hope he does have a full recovery and lives a life as close to normal as possible. I don't like Darcy, but there were few riders I'd enjoy being beaten more than him, and for that reason he'll be missed by me. You can't like everyone, if you did you wouldn't care who wins!
Sometimes it needs a high profile 'victim' for things to change. Just look at Ayrton Senna's death in formula one for an example. Safety improved ten fold following his death, and it was another 20 years before a freak accident saw another formula one death. If one positive can come out of Darcy's accident, I hope it's that safety improves for other riders. If it encourages more riders to use neck braces and other safety gear and a few less riders get injured because of it in the future, then it hasn't been completely in vain.
The only other topic I wanted to discuss was cheering when riders fall off. We've all done it, yes even you, and don;t claim you haven't! Perhaps some more than others and some more maliciously than others, but there will be few who didn't chuckle at Kildemand's pathetic comedy fall at Coventry earlier this season, along with many similar examples. In these instances, it's a normal human reaction, and the same way we might react to a footballer missing a penalty or being sent off.
The case study here should be Harris in the elite league semi at Poole when he was chasing down Kennett. The majority of the stadium cheered when Harris slid off and I would have if the situation was reversed, however the wrong thing is the denying and the excuse. The excuse given was that the cheer was for Kennett winning the race (bit strange considering it was a loud roar going into turn 3). It's utter rubbish. The reason we cheer is normally because our team has gained because of the fall. That's a perfectly acceptable reason to cheer, however the reason our team has gained is because of the fall. Ergo, we are cheering the fall. There are times it isn't acceptable, and I'd like to think most people know what these are, but before we over react to what fans of other clubs do, let's just think about what we'd do if roles were reversed first!
My message from this blog is to think before posting 'what's the best that can come of this if I do post this'. After injury, there's often little you can say to make it better.
I hope this season has less injuries than normal, however please remember it's unlikely this season will be the worst ever!
#StayStrong ;)
