Why everyone should participate in sport

"Sport is a metaphor for life" is a well known maxim even though I would contend that it's slightly apocryphal.

Participating in team sports teaches us the following:

• you are only as good as your weakest link, unless of course you are Diego Armando Maradona
  
• you succeed together, you fail together
• there can only be one winner
• the team must be greater than the sum of its parts (witness the USA's failure at last years World Basketball Championship despite the presence of King James and Melo and England's abysmal showing in last year's World Cup despite having David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves)
• weather has a part to play (reference the Duckworth-Lewis rule in one day cricket)
  

Participation in individual sports provides the following lessons:

• your success can hinge on someone else's failure eg high jump
  
• mental strength is paramount (reference V's Wimbledon success in 2005 and Jana Novotna's Wimbledon meltdown in 1993)
• everything for the most part, depends on the individual
• there can only be one winner
  

But ultimately, once the competition/game/match is over and the adrenalin has dissipated, fierce competitors shake hands and exchange kisses (maybe). Sport puts paid to the notion that it's simply about taking part as there has to be a winner, which conversely means, there has to be a loser. However, playing sport teaches us how to lose graciously - there's nothing more noble than seeing a competitor who has been dismantled by their opponent (reference Serena's Sharapova shattering or what the Swiss Maestro routinely does to his opponents) congratulate their opponent after a humiliating loss - this sets one up, rather nicely, to handle the inevitable humiliating failures that will eventually come one's way in the real world.