By Brett Erasmus
I know this is a blog about squash but the Winter Olympics really has been awesome to watch, so, I digress. The big stars like Apolo Ohno, Sean White and Lindsey Vonn have so far managed to hold their nerve and deliver to their potential. But spare a thought for some of their less fortunate competitors..
Last weekend Rocket man Ohno was coming 4th in the men’s 1500m until the final corner, when 2 of the Korean skaters basically took each other out and gifted the US the 2nd and 3rd spots. Those guys trained hard for 4 years just to get to a point where they were split seconds from a 1/2/3 sweep for their country. They must be heartbroken; and their coach must be more than a little upset. A few days later one of Sean White’s big Japanese rivals bombed out in the halfpipe by trying to go one up on White, but ended up doing a pretty impressive face-plant. He was forced to go back to the top of the hill and complete his final run bloodied and embarrassed, and with full knowledge that Sean White had outdone him again. Another 4 years of hard work down the tubes (excuse the pun).
And then, one of Lindsey Vonn's main rivals in the women’s downhill had to watch as Vonn crossed the line (a few minutes before her run) to post the fastest time of the day. And Vonn was basically skiing on one leg, because the other leg was severely bruised in a recent accident. In fact, she has hardly skied at all for over 2 weeks, owing to the pain. So her leg must have hurt like hell by the time she landed the final jump at full speed (talk about gutsy!). So the Swede who followed her had no option but to also push herself to her physical limit in order to try to win the race. And she did. And this limit came with the finish line in sight, as she sat back on the last jump and literally flew 2 thirds the length of a football field before crashing through a gate and sliding across the finish line on her back. Vonn could not even bare to watch this. Fortunately, none of these Olympians broke anything or was seriously injured, but the pain of defeat in such a fashion must have been way more telling than the physical injuries they will endure.
The real test comes in how these athletes react to the defeat. Will they stand up, dust themselves off and come back to fight another day? Or will they give up and fall over the ridge of despair? There is still more competition to come for each of them.
Squash players know this feeling well. No matter how good you are, there is always someone out there who’s got your number. As we recently saw at the ToC, even the world number one has his off days. It’s not the defeat in itself that counts - everyone loses sometimes - it’s how you deal with that defeat that determines your ultimate success.
I know this is a blog about squash but the Winter Olympics really has been awesome to watch, so, I digress. The big stars like Apolo Ohno, Sean White and Lindsey Vonn have so far managed to hold their nerve and deliver to their potential. But spare a thought for some of their less fortunate competitors..
Last weekend Rocket man Ohno was coming 4th in the men’s 1500m until the final corner, when 2 of the Korean skaters basically took each other out and gifted the US the 2nd and 3rd spots. Those guys trained hard for 4 years just to get to a point where they were split seconds from a 1/2/3 sweep for their country. They must be heartbroken; and their coach must be more than a little upset. A few days later one of Sean White’s big Japanese rivals bombed out in the halfpipe by trying to go one up on White, but ended up doing a pretty impressive face-plant. He was forced to go back to the top of the hill and complete his final run bloodied and embarrassed, and with full knowledge that Sean White had outdone him again. Another 4 years of hard work down the tubes (excuse the pun).
And then, one of Lindsey Vonn's main rivals in the women’s downhill had to watch as Vonn crossed the line (a few minutes before her run) to post the fastest time of the day. And Vonn was basically skiing on one leg, because the other leg was severely bruised in a recent accident. In fact, she has hardly skied at all for over 2 weeks, owing to the pain. So her leg must have hurt like hell by the time she landed the final jump at full speed (talk about gutsy!). So the Swede who followed her had no option but to also push herself to her physical limit in order to try to win the race. And she did. And this limit came with the finish line in sight, as she sat back on the last jump and literally flew 2 thirds the length of a football field before crashing through a gate and sliding across the finish line on her back. Vonn could not even bare to watch this. Fortunately, none of these Olympians broke anything or was seriously injured, but the pain of defeat in such a fashion must have been way more telling than the physical injuries they will endure.
The real test comes in how these athletes react to the defeat. Will they stand up, dust themselves off and come back to fight another day? Or will they give up and fall over the ridge of despair? There is still more competition to come for each of them.
Squash players know this feeling well. No matter how good you are, there is always someone out there who’s got your number. As we recently saw at the ToC, even the world number one has his off days. It’s not the defeat in itself that counts - everyone loses sometimes - it’s how you deal with that defeat that determines your ultimate success.
No comments:
Post a Comment