Monday, August 06, 2012

Olympic Games Day 10

 It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
-Gore Vidal

Loved this weekend what with all the medals Great Britain won. Go Britain! We American are doing pretty well, too, although I hate it when some of our athletes behave badly when they "only" win a silver or bronze medal.

McKayla Maroney's behavior toward the other medal winners after learning she had lost the gold in woman's vault was rude, unsportsmanlike, and childish. I'll give her the childish part as she is only sixteen but the other behaviors are unacceptable and her coach should have taught her that being a gracious second or third place winner is part of being a good athlete. I find the belief that gold is the only medal worth winning in the Olympics to be very mercenary and distasteful.

(McKayla Maroney on the podium after wining silver in the Women's Vault final)

But then there is Justin Gatlin shown below minutes after wining the bronze medal in the Men's 100m race.


Gatlin ran this race faster than he did when he won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics but unfortunately for him he was racing against the two fastest men in the world, Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. But look at his face. You can see that he understands what the Olympics are about, doing the best you can in any given event and then reveling in the joy of winning a medal.

No comments: