Moving up slowly

Call me naive. Now that's done, let's move on to what may seem like some crappy ass Living section of a newspaper commentary, but here goes; Can activity not just be for fun anymore, must someone or some group always come along and make a casual swim or a run around the block some formal, highly competitive and usually way too long endurance test like event.
The answer is clearly yes.
Gus stopped playing baseball at around ten years old and that was because he was not interested in being sworn at by the coach, or letting down the other players because he might have been daydreaming about Lego when he was in the field and missed a catch. I can't imagine that kids who just love the water and want to swim, all want to win so badly it hurts. However, because the people who rule all of the world want everything to be about winning and coming in first, anything fun just becomes war.