Since the day of the ancient Olympic... (Rephrase)
I was watching the Olympic just now. It was the men swimming event. While I was watching some thoughts came to my mind.
I think, for a sportman, to be taking part in Olympic, he will be very proud of himself. To win a medal, his family will be very proud of him and to win a gold medal, his country or even the world will be very proud of him.
Whenever, the shot is call, the race begin. Our attention, the world attention, will be on the few who are leading. When the race end, the fastest will be announce and all the participants' time record will be shown, every eyes in the world will be looking at the first few names, top three, some hoping that that their country names will appear there, some just wana know who got the medals.
What about the rest? I mean the beside the top three, what about the other sportmen who took part in the same event as the top three medalists. Are the rest just be there to provide a contrast with the medalists, so to make them look even better. Or, are they there to just fill in the empty lanes, so to make the whole event look more crowded more life. Or even worst, they are there to provide entertainment while the highlights are the medalists.
Somehow, I feel pity for this sportmen who feel so proud of themselves to be in Olympic for their country but in the end being curse by this unspoken rule since the day of the ancient Olympic. The loser will be insulted, while the winner will be honored.
Next time do take a look at those who are not winning the game, at least, as a appreciation of their effort.
2 Comments:
Wait.. Correct me if I am interpreting your post wrongly.
"Somehow, I feel pity for this sportsmen who feel so proud of themselves to be in Olympic for their country but in the end being curse by this unspoken rule since the day of the ancient Olympic. The loser will be insulted, while the winner will be honored."
But isn't that wrong? When it comes down to the very basics, isn't it more important that all the competitors did their best, and that they know that they had gave it their 101% ?
Isn't it wrong how much we hero-worship our mortal champions? That other values, eg. Perseverance, Determination, Sportsmanship is only given lip service? That other than the Gold, Silver & Bronze winners, we so easily marginalise the rest as "losers" ?
Think about it. If as spectators, we happen to hold such values, it is the competitors that should feel pity for us. It reflects on our narrow-mindedness
"Next time, try to take a look at the bottom of the event ranking, remember to thank God if your country name did not appear there."
Even if Singapore was the last of the last rankers for the Olympics, I thank God for my countrymen who gave their efforts to participate in it anyways. He sees the effort too, not just the achievements (Amen?) I would also thank God that my nation is safe & sound that we can afford to send representatives down to Athens.
please comment.
I think from country to country, the way people view their athletes competing in the olympics differ.
In Singapore, the attitude of "must win, or don't care at all" is kinda ingrained in the thinking. Since SG'ers know their representatives have a snowballs chance in hell to win, they don't really care do they?
From the perspective of countries that have a track record at winning in the olympics, I guess they do look at the medal count a lot. Do they care about the spirit of sportsmanship, etc? I'm not really sure. In CNN, there was a piece about the American "Dream Team", the basketball team they sent to the olympics. They have proven themselves to be the team to beat for 16 years (I think) and when they lost to the Puerto Ricans, their own coach said it was humiliating.
Then again, there might be the country that is proud just to have one of their athletes represent them in such an large and prestigious international event. I heard from somewhere that for the British Virgin Islands, there is only one athlete representing them. I would imagine that it would be something that the country would be proud of. Who cares if they don't realy win anything? They're taking part in The Games.
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