I have previously written a column on stone skipping and one on sport ethics. It is a sad day indeed to now have to combine the two. This is further evidence that the apocalypse is near.
Scandal plagued the World Stone Skimming Championships this year. A reminder that stone skipping counts the number of skips while stone skimming is decided by the longest distance covered after skipping at least twice. This particular championship is held each year on Easdale, a tiny car free island of 60 permanent residents off the coast of Scotland.
This year’s event drew 400 participants from around the world. The “Toss Master” Kyle Mathews, also the commentator, watched every single throw of the more than 1200 during the championship. “Unfortunately, these couple slipped through my hawklike vision,” he said. Other competitors did notice something was amiss and alerted Mr. Mathews to the potential cheating.
To the cheaters’ credit, when Mr. Mathews contacted the contestants in question, they immediately admitted that they had cheated and accepted that they would be retroactively disqualified from this year’s competition. The cheaters’ offense? They had altered their throwing stones. “I did see some stones that looked a little too perfect,” said Jon Jennings, the winner of this year’s event and the first American to do so. By doctoring their stones a few competitors violated one of the few rules of the Championships, that each stone must be no wider than 3 inches and “naturally formed on Easdale.”
Organizers measure the stones with a piece of metal nicknamed “the ring of truth.” Lucy Wood, who holds the Guinness World Record for the most wins in the women’s world stone-skimming championship, and who claimed her sixth title this year in Scotland, said she was impressed with how smoothly the matter was resolved. “You wouldn’t get that in a lot of sports,” she said. Referring to stone skipping: “It’s a really useless life skill, but I seem to have it,” said Ms. Wood.
As a former professor of a Sport Ethics course and the reigning family reunion stone skipping champion, I find this news to be devastating. My beloved stone skipping, which I consider a combination of art, Zen and sport, was perhaps the last bastion of fair play. Now it has joined the long list of other sports that have found cheaters among the participants.
Those also recently added: chess (computer assistance), fishing (lead weights in the fish), cornhole (by making the bean bags smaller to better fit through the target hole). What is the world coming to??!!
The Easdale competition originated in 1983 after a couple of people came up with the idea in a pub, as all the best things do in Scotland. It has grown so that contestants now have to register online. There were 2000 people vying for 400 spots and they sold out in three minutes.
There were more than 2000 spectators this year. (Reminder 60 inhabitants on this island.) The championship has received more attention than usual across Britain this year because of the cheating scandal, said Mr. Mathews. But on the island, calm has returned. “If you open your window here,” Mr. Mathews said, “you’ll hear the waves slapping and bird tweeting, and that’s it.” At least that is still reassuring to know.
I believe that sport and art can be prophetic for the direction in which a society is headed. Again, I implore us to return to the Greeks: “I would prefer to fail with honor than win by cheating” (Sophocles, according to Plato’s notes). In addition to worrying about the direction and fate of our global society, I am concerned that the number of worthy skipping stones “naturally formed on Easdale” is being severely diminished.
Jim Cross is a retired Fort Lewis College professor and basketball coach living in Durango. Reach him at cross_j@fortlewis.edu.
