You have to admit that we all (OK then... most of us) admire and trust our sportspeople.
When they succeed we feel we are succeeding with them. When they lose we feel their pain.
Sometimes that has a negative impact on the way we behave, but most of the time we encourage them to pick themselves up and continue doing well.
Sport is a big part of New Zealand's national identity. For many of us it defines who we are, and because of that we grow to trust the people who represent us in that sphere. They are our role models and our heroes. But why?
Trust is defined (in the Oxford English Dictionary) as “the firm belief in the reliability, truth or ability of someone or something”.
By applying that definition it could be argued we trust sportspeople because the embody and uphold everything that makes us New Zealanders. They work hard, they are strong, they are determined, they are successful, they are humble (most of the time). They can be relied upon to uphold our national identity and our that is something that is important to us.
From a young age many of us are told of the heroics of our sporting greats. For me, like many other Kiwi kids, I was brought up on a healthy diet of Kiwi "heritage" sport – cricket, netball and rugby. I was told tales of Athletic Park and the Basin Reserve.
Many of my summers were spent at the Basin, enjoying games, asking for autographs from my favourite cricketers and playing on the grass during the lunchtime break.
I grew to ‘trust’ some of these players, not only because they could be trusted to bowl into the horrific Wellington wind, or score a ton but because they took the time out to talk with fans and sign an autograph or two. That to me was the sign of a trustworthy sportsperson.
We all have our most trusted sportsperson, but according to the 2013 Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Person list, All Black captain Richie McCaw is up there. In 2012 he topped the list. Maybe that could be related to his heroics of the Rugby World Cup the previous year.
This year he is third behind another former All Black Sir John Kirwan and war hero Willie Apiata.
But why do we hold Richie in such high esteem?
Maybe it’s because he embodies everything we associate with sport. After all he is the ‘king of kings’ in sport in this country. He's the leader of the group of men who participate in the sport that we consider to be our national game.
We know whenever Richie is on he’ll uphold all the values we admire in our sportspeople. He can be trusted to do his job and do it well. And most of the time he gets the results. We were unimpressed when a certain Australian player dare to hurt our Richie. But my question to you is if we didn’t win the World Cup, would we still trust him?
On the same list (albeit way down it) is Stephen Donald, the man who kicked the World Cup-winning penalty. He went from zero to hero faster than you could say “put on an undersized All Blacks jersey”. But what if he’d missed that critical goal? Would he still have made the most trusted list?
It could also be suggested those with the highest profile are also the most trusted. In 2012 the most googled Kiwi was Valerie Adams, followed closely behind by Sarah Walker and Mahe Drysdale – all Olympic medalists. In 2011, in a shocking turn of events, it was all about... rugby, with Sonny Bill Williams and Richie McCaw topping the list.
Do you see a trend here?
Over the last few years these sports people have either appeared on the most trusted list, or aligned themselves with a trusted brand, which in itself indicates trustworthiness (BMXer Sarah Walker is an “Iron Maiden” for trusted brand “Beef & Lamb”, for example).
It seems that the more successful the sportsperson, the more trusted they are. It will be interesting to see who will be the most trusted next year. (As there are no cricketers in the top 10 most trusted, or searched, I’m really hoping the White Ferns do well at the Twenty20 World Cup in March!)
Tell us on Facebook: Who is your most trusted?