As TCKs we talk a lot about the constellation of different cultures that make up our “third” culture. We look at the ways that these things show up in our lives through what we wear, what music or TV we like, what foods and drinks we enjoy, what places we feel a connection to.

But what about sports? Do sports play a role in cultural identity? Does this look different for TCKs than for monocultural people?

Sports are their own little subculture, aren't they? People who are into it are INTO IT. It becomes a part of who they are, their identity. How they connect with people (and make enemies with others) It can unify people, towns, cities, countries - give people a sense of being a part of something bigger. And it can be isolating if you are not a part of that particular culture, or if you grew up somewhere else and follow a different sport or team. 

I’m sure there are books that have been written about the sheer power of sports on a global level. I mean we have phenomena like the Olympics and the World Cup where entire nations come together for periods of time in the name of athletic competition. Sports can change economies. Spark political movements. Draw the attention of literally all humans. But it can also be a way of categorizing people, identifying things about their upbringing or social class - golfers, marathoners, and footballers being put in different “categories of person” because of what that means about how and where they grew up.

I do not currently follow any sport religiously. But as a TCK I have noticed that different chapters of my life have certainly been impacted by the sports that dominated the place where I lived at that time. As a small child in America, I was raised by a baseball fan where the Yankee Red Sox rivalry was everything. I could tell you what happened in the World Series the year I was born before I even knew how to watch baseball. When I moved to Uganda, everything was about football, and the rivalry that determined everything was Manchester United and Arsenal. You had to pick a side even if you didn’t play or follow football. It was just what one did.

When I went to the states for college, I dated a basketball player and went to Super Bowl parties so I had to learn how to watch those sports too. I literally had never watched a basketball or American football game in my life prior to college and I don’t know if I would have been interested in learning about those worlds if I hadn’t made friends who happened to be super into them. (Shout out to my best friend who went to all the games with me and talked me through what was happening and what the different plays meant so I could actually participate in the social gatherings, and know what in the world was going on.)

It’s almost like learning a different language. And each country, state, culture, subculture, and even each individual will have their own “sports dialect”. In teaching me how to watch basketball and football, my friend was being a cultural translator.

If you are a TCK, do you care about sports? If you do, which ones? And why? I found that most of my TCK friends follow football (real football, not American football) because it’s almost like a universal language. Every country plays football. No matter where you move you will find football fans and perhaps a sense of belonging or connection in that larger football culture. The same cannot necessarily be said about other sports. 

On the other side of things, I have found that some American TCKs who have a complicated experience with repatriation, perhaps hold some resentment towards American dominated sports (such as American football) because of the cultural associations that the sport has with “being American”. American football culture is definitely a thing, and it has been associated with lots of other cultural characteristics beyond appreciating the game of football itself. And that can hold weight (positive or negative) for people. So sometimes liking or disliking a particular sport is actually about what that means on a deeper, identity level.

For example, I still consider myself a Man U fan, even though it’s been years since I actively followed them. But when I think about being a Man U fan, it’s not really isolated to football. It’s a part of my identity that is associated with why I even chose that team in the first place: specific relationships and memories, even my very connection to Uganda, being a TCK, and being connected to the global conversation of football. Rejecting Man U would feel like rejecting all that too.

The team, the sport, the decision to be connected to these larger things, can be about so much more than what it seems.

Of course there are people who don’t care about sports. It can be irrelevant. And that says something too. I think that our relationship with these types of things speaks to the place(s) where we have lived, and how we choose to live in them. For me, following sports became a way that I could connect with different people and places in my life, learn a little more about them, love something that they love, have something to do together. And slowly I began to realize that the ways I was learning to grow and connect with others were slowly evolving me too. Even if it started as a way to not be excluded, I realized I actually enjoyed the vibe. I liked the connectedness. I liked feeling like I was a part of something bigger. 

What about you?