Similarity of situation impacts virtue translation across contexts.

Not all virtues are equally likely to translate across contexts.

Reflection can aid virtue development across contexts.

In 2022, Barack Obama spoke to Harvard University’s basketball team. He described how playing basketball shaped him and prepared him for leadership. “There is something extraordinary about hitching your wagon to something bigger than yourself,” he stated. He added, “The odds of any of you being LeBron or Steph, as good as you are, are not as high as the odds of you being extraordinary leaders in health care or business or civil rights.”[1]

Obama attested to the formative value of sports for character. Additionally, while it is statistically unlikely that many collegiate athletes will play at the professional level, Obama shared that their sporting experiences would prepare them for leadership in other domains.

Can Sports Form Character?

The sentiments Obama shared are common, and they may be apt. In many cases, sports can play a formative role in our character. This is for a few reasons. Sports involve practice, or intentional repetition of certain virtue-tracking actions. For example, a footballer may learn fitting fear concerning risks. A runner may learn to persevere over extended runs. A curler may learn patience, in discerning the right moment to release a stone. Accordingly, sports provide repeated opportunities to act well, in ways that are conducive to virtue development.[2]

Sports also provide opportunities to reckon with infelicities of various sorts, such as injuries, losses, and hardships. They offer practice managing heightened emotions. Sports also facilitate encounters with........

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