Dakar 2023 - Day 4

There isn't a sport where people don't get hurt.  Pitchers tear up their arms.  Tennis players their knees, swimmers their shoulders, everybody wears out, and people performing at the edge of possibility wear out faster.

When we're watching them do it, when we are entertained by activities with high-risk profiles, are we culpable?  Do we have a moral obligation to look away?  Deprive the sport of the eyeballs that make dollars that pay for the spectacle?  We know, pretty much beyond a shadow of a doubt that football causes traumatic brain injuries. We know that Olympic gymnastics training has lifelong effects on the girls that endure it.  We know that, and we watch.

As of this date, 76 people have died because of the Dakar rally.  There will be more.  Don't read that and think "oh, things used to be bad in the early days".  They were, and there were also fatalities amongst competitors in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Yes, safety measures have increased, and technology is being utilized, and yes, more are saved.  But the technological advances that can increase safety are often paired with advances that increase speed. The Dakar this year is much longer than last year, making fatigue a real issue and that brings the risks that go with it.  There is a longer unsupported section, increasing risk to everyone as they have less resources to draw on in need.  These things also bring drama, and dramatic racing is better racing.  But it is still racing.  The very nature of racing is that you will go as fast as you can.  And sometimes we make mistakes. 

 What do we do?  Do we look away?  Or do we accept that not all things are safe.  Not all things are fair.  Not all things are just, and good, and controllable, and knowable.  Do we accept risk, knowing, somewhere, somehow, that our witness helps create it?

The Dakar is struggle.  The Dakar is challenge.  The Dakar is humanity and technology attempting impossible things with regularity. The Dakar is an opportunity for triumph, for accomplishment.

The Dakar is hard. The Dakar is unforgiving. The Dakar is deadly.