We live in a “LOOK AT ME!” society, and it’s showing in how athletes often act on fields of play.
The recent North Carolina boys’ state track and field championship for large schools came down to the last event: the 4×400 relay. The anchor leg runner for Mallard Creek sprinted toward the finish line and held five fingers aloft on his left hand. He did it to signify his school’s fifth consecutive state title (three outdoor, two indoor).
Earlier, a race official cautioned the runner after he celebrated in the 300- meter hurdles race, a caution that can be heard on tape. Because of that prior action, the race official disqualified him for the second gesture. In so doing, Mallard Creek lost the points necessary to win another state championship.
You can imagine the uproar that followed, with some supporting the call and others damning it. Like others, I have an opinion. To share it, I’ll frame my thoughts by viewing it within a context: the narcissistic need for some athletes to celebrate victories.
We’re seeing more of that these days, largely because we live in an increasingly “LOOK AT ME!” society. For proof, just scroll through just about any Facebook feed. The point, though, is that there was a time, which I can attest to as an athlete and a coach, when fewer athletes engaged in what I’ll call acting-out behavior.
It was a time when the word “performative” wasn’t used much, even though emotions (“powerfully felt emotions,” per Wordsworth) and the eagerness to win were just as high. Performance spoke for itself; you didn’t need to embellish it.
Today, too many competitors feel it is important not only to win a race, catch a pass, or score points, but also to add “a performance” to their success. An example is world-class runners using a sleeping gesture as they cross the finish line to ridicule the runners they had just defeated. Gads! You just beat them in a major race; let that speak for itself.
Some athletes find that difficult to do. Consider this. It happened at the end of the Shanghai Diamond League meet on May 16, 2026. You’ll see Mark English race past the finish line (a good habit for even the best runners) to squeak past Kethobogile Haingura and win by 0.04 seconds.
While that seems an uneventful end, it was far from that. Haingura did a bit of celebrating, and his lack of discipline allowed English to win the race, set a meet record, and take home the purse.
The narcissistic need to celebrate is flooding sports, from professionals to youth league participants. It has become a major problem in my view, because the only performance that matters is associated with the competition, and not what an athlete does otherwise.
Put succinctly, as a fan and coach, I want to watch an athlete compete, not perform.
In my view, a gesture of any type, even in the last few feet of a race or the final seconds of a match or game, demonstrates a lack of discipline that calls for rules that restrain and/or prohibit performative behavior.
If I want a performance, I’ll attend the theater.
