Should athletes shake hands during war?

In tennis, after the match handshake between players at the net has long been part of the game's lore. And, in a sport where decency and dignity are—for better or worse—historical features of the game, basic etiquette is almost sacred.

This is why there was a dispute between two players at this year's Wimbledon significant hum in the world of sports, it's all about the simple gesture — the lack of it.

In London on Sunday, Ukrainian player Elina Svitolina and Belarusian player Victoria Azarenka avoided the tennis code by forgoing the customary handshake. For months, Svitolina and others have abandoned the gesture in protest of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

At first glance, the situation seems trivial. (It's just a handshake, right?) But the feud between the two players tells a complicated story — one that raises thorny moral questions about the role of sports in society and beyond, he says Rory Smeadassociate professor of philosophy and the Ronald L. and Linda A. Rossetti Professor of the Humanities at Northeastern, who researches social conventions and moral behavior.

“First, this is not a new phenomenon in relation to sport and politics – that is, conflict between the ethical rules of the sport and the wider moral and political contexts in which it is played,” says Smead.

After defeating Azarenka, Svitolina he told reporters that until Russia withdraws from Ukraine, “I'm not going to shake hands.” It also pressured the Women's Tennis Association to impose a no-handshake rule between the sides (although Belarus has no military presence in Ukraine, it has provided critical material support). Azarenka responded by saying she “respected her decision” to forgo the gesture.

It is not the first time that the war in Ukraine has invaded the field of tennis. Last year, Wimbledon took the unprecedented step of banning Russian and Belarusian players from playing at the All England Club. Since the invasion, journalists have hounded Russian and Belarusian players for their positions in the war, including most recently at the French Open.

Belarus player Aryna Sabalenka was also on the receiving end of no handshakes at this year's Roland Garros—also from Svitolina, in addition to Ukrainian player Marta Kostyuk. of Kostiuk handshake refusal after losing in the first round to Sabalenka drew boos and jeers from the French crowd— taunting that the Belarusian told reporters she thought was directed at her.

This is not a new phenomenon in relation to sport and politics—that is, conflict between the ethical rules of the sport and the wider moral and political contexts in which it is played.

Rory Smead, associate professor of philosophy and the Ronald L. and Linda A. Rossetti Professor of the Humanities at Northeastern

After defeating Svitolina later in the tournament, Sabalenka waited at the net, as is her custom, to shake hands with the Ukrainian. Then, during the press conference after the handshake, Svitolina accused Sabalenka of inflammatory tensions waiting in net for a shake he knew would never come.

With criticism raining down on players on both sides of the net, the situation presents a moral dilemma with no easy path for athletes trying to balance their careers against pressures to speak out. After her loss to Svitolina at Wimbledon, Azarenka assumed the Ukrainian wasn't going to shake her hand and walked off the court to boos from the crowd. During the post-match press conference, a aggravated Azarenka simply noted that there was nothing she could have done “that would have been right” given the circumstances.

“She [Azarenka] it really captured the idea of ​​what a moral dilemma is,” says Smead, “which is a really conflicting set of rules that we're expected to follow. In the end, it's a lose-lose.”

Thinking ethically about the handshake debate is doubly difficult because sports occupy such a “strange place” in the culture, Smead says. On the one hand, professional sport provides a “controlled environment for conflict and competition,” but only to the extent that it can maintain a sense of “the game.” For this purpose, “the rules of sportsmanship” – e.g. the handshake – are necessary to maintain the integrity of the game, he says.

When players are involved in sports, “it increases the enjoyment of the sport,” says Smead. “We enjoy the spectacle of competition, but without the real consequences associated with many other things in life. Indeed, the whole idea of ​​a game is to try not I have real concequenses”.

On the other hand, Smead points to the fact that, historically, sport has also provided a suitable site for protest – for breaking down moral norms. So it shouldn't surprise us when players dismiss convention in favor of what utilitarians call “the greater good.” He cites several notable examples from the past 100 years: from 1936 boycott of the Berlin Olympics and 1978 World Cup boycott amid Argentina's “dirty war”, to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling for racial injustice.