How to Survive School Athletics Carnivals When You Hate Sport

Find the fun with friends.

Whether you love it or you hate it, school athletics carnivals are a thing that pretty much every Aussie student has to go through: it’s like a rite of passage.

While your best mate on the school soccer team might love the sports carnival season, if you’re not exactly the most talented athlete, it can be kind of hard to enjoy the day to the fullest.

So, if you’re dreading your next school sports carnival, here are our tips on how to survive it.

Try your hardest.

Let’s be real, if you go into an activity with a poor attitude, you’re going to come out of it thinking it was a bit of a bummer.

So, if you want to maximise your enjoyment at a sports carnival, even if you aren’t a sporty queen, putting in your top efforts into each activity, event or team race will definitely help.

If you try your hardest throughout the day, your wins will feel even better, and losses can be shared with your friends and classmates.

Remember, sports carnivals aren’t about winning, but it’s not going to be fun for anyone if you don’t try, even just a little.

Bring snacks.

Reminder: sports carnivals usually last all day or at least for several hours, meaning you’ve gotta fuel your body at some point.

Bringing along your favourite snacks, sporty foods or sports drinks will keep you fuelled for all the athletics you’re about to do, but they’ll also keep you feeling happy if sports are your least favourite thing in the world.

Plus, who doesn’t love sharing snacks with their mates? Food brings people together after all.

Invite your fam.

Okay, if you don’t want your parents taking embarrassing photos of you to share when you turn 21, maybe skip this one.

In all seriousness, inviting your family or non-school friends to your sports carnival to cheer you on is great because it means you have more people to enjoy the day and celebrate with.

Having the support of family with you will mean that even your losses are celebrated, and your experience of the carnival becomes more about having a go and spending time with your family, rather than winning.

Celebrate all achievements (even coming last).

While it’s awesome to come first in long jump or the 80m sprint, not everyone can take home the champion boy or girl prize.

Whether you’re always first, somewhere in the middle, or often finishing in the final place, celebrating the fact that you and your mates gave an activity a crack is the most important thing.

Plus, even if you, your siblings or your friends don’t win first place in every sport, you still also have the chance to win as a team with classmates, or with your entire faction as a group (go green).

Even if you hate sport, take the day as an opportunity to dress up as your faction’s mascot, fly the colours to the best of your ability or go the whole hog with your athletics carnival outfit. Just ‘cos running is big at the sports carnival, doesn’t mean fashion can’t be too.

Enjoy the experience with your friends.

All in all, school athletics carnivals are designed to bring together all ages of students and encourage them to have fun, get a bit muddy, and work together to achieve a team goal.

Sports carnivals are about the memories with friends that you take home, not the winning, so enjoy every sweaty run, awkward jump or funny discus throw you’ve got in you. Trust us, you’ll miss it when you leave high school.

Header Image: leah hetteberg via Unsplash.

This article was originally published 01 October 2021 and has since been updated.