All athletes have an innate drive to win. To be the best. To be stood on that podium with a medal around their necks. To make their country proud.
The entire nation also has this innate drive to be the best. They support those who win and they boo those who lose. They put all their eggs in someone else's basket. We feel their thrill but sometime we feel our own frustrations when they don't win. We feel that they somehow failed us.
Well I have news for you. Eliminate that attitude right now.
There have been cases over the last week of the Olympics that have brought down the competing athletes, poked fun and downright insulted them. But they forget that each one of these competitors have put their life, their soul, their whole being into competing and training. Some may have only trained for a couple of years, others decades. And it all comes down to one moment, one race, one glory. One mistake and it's vanquished. All hope extinguished. It is soul destroying. But they rebound, they get up and they do it again.
No matter how many gold medals our athletes accumulate in these games. No matter how far they fall short of our expectations (or even exceed them for that matter). We cannot criticise them going all out. Smashing their personal bests repeatedly in race after race from heat to semi-final to final; pushing their bodies to their limits; going out onto the floor with that nations pride resting on their shoulders. The nations pressure, their families pressure and their own pressure. And they achieve beyond their own wildest dreams.
And that is competition. That is winning. That is being a true Olympic champion.
That is what inspires the next generation; and that is what makes me proud to be part of a nation.
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