Hey yo and welcome to another edition of Tales From The Fish. I am as always your resident Olympic games watcher. In this edition of Tales From The Fish, I will be addressing whether to doing well is more important than the experience of the Olympics as a whole.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that the Olympics are on right now in Beijing, China. Now there are a multitude of atheletes in the Olympics in dozens upon dozens of sports. Now there is pressure on lots of atheletes to do well. But some people think that getting to the games is proof that you are good at what you do. This point is made by a Saskatoon Star Phoenix columnist. My mom who was reading it said that this columnist said that getting to the Olympics proves you are a very good at what you do.
That is something I agree with to a point. It is great these atheletes were able to excel in their chosen sport and qualify for the Olympics. It makes all this hard work and training seem worthwhile. Or does it? Some may say that getting to the Olympics is a dream many don’t achieve. Basically they are saying don’t be selfish. In many respects they shouldn’t be. They should just be humble about it all and just know that they have done their country proud by just getting to the Olympics. For some that is just not enough.
What I mean is that some think that all time spent training, practicing, and competing will all go to waste if they don’t have a respectable showing. Sure some don’t have any medal hopes as long as they are in the top five, ten, or whatever. Some of the atheletes have huge amounts of pressure on themselves to medal. Take the United States’ Michael Phelps for instance. After his impressive showing in Athens in 2004, he is highly favored to win more hardware at this Olympics. Phelps will not disappoint. Take Canadian swimmer Brent Hayden for example. He is a world champion swimmer and had high hopes for medaling. But he failed to move on. This a huge disappoint Hayden I am sure as there was high hopes for him.
Should we really put this much pressure on our atheletes? Have we become a society consumed with winning each and every time? I would say yes to the latter question. But that doesn’t mean it is worth it. We should be content with the atheletes trying their best. Or that is what some people would like us to be.
On the otherside of the coin is that some of the best in the world don’t necessarily win medals, awards, championships, prizes, or whatever in their field or sport of choice. Sure it would be nice to win. But you don’t need awards to prove your worth. Maybe that is where some people need to adjust their thinking. Awards and such are just a bonus.
Is it more important to get to the Olympics? Is it more important to do well at the Olympics? There are are people on both sides. Even though I would like Team Canada to well, I am proud of the each and everyone of them for getting to grandest stage in amature sport. We all like our atheletes to achieve a medal of some colour, but doing their best is all we ask for. Getting to the Olympics is a memory that will last a lifetime.
Thanks for reading and see you on the flipside.
Mr. C.C.
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