There are millions of different cultures in the world and one of the best ways to see them all interact is in an international sporting event. Like the World Cup, players from all over join at Wimbledon to represent their country on the tennis court. London hosts the Wimbledon tournament which creates a flood of international players, their families, fans and press. Every country routes for their own which creates a great feeling of unity among fans when their player does well and advances. An aritcle in the Telegraph online spoke about the well known player, Andy Murray who is now the British favorite to win.

What is interesting about the article is that it recognized Murray as a Scotsman but also quotes him saying how “‘It’s been a huge, huge wait for us and obviously the crowd would love to see a British player win”’. Mr. Murray’s official website gave some clarification, stating that he was born in Dunblane, Scotland but lives in London and is currently the British number one player.

Another culturally conflicting instance regarding Andy occured when he told the press that he wasn’t sure if he would be bowing to the Queen of England when she came to watch the tennis matches. He acknowledged that it should be a personal preference but ended up bowing to her during his match. It would be interesting to know if only British players were expected to bow to her Majesty or if all players, regardless of nationality were expected to do so as well. Furthermore, if Murray identifies himself as more of a Scot than a Brit he may feel it isn’t his duty. However, if he does identify himself more as a Brit (which seems to be the case in the Telegraph article) he may just feel pressured to play well in front of her.

In this day in age, multinational people are much more common in the world, and it is interesting to see how they cope with personal definition of themselves. London is home to a plethora of citizens from different nations, I would love to come back and explore the different areas of town which are home to those of Indian, Arab, Asian and so forth decent to see how they view themselves as British citizens and as products of another nation.

To see the article in the Telegraph visit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/andymurray/7865531/Wimbledon-2010-If-ever-Murray-is-destined-to-win-this-must-be-the-year.html

To learn more about Andy Murray visit his website: http://www.andymurray.com/#/about/