I have said more than once, being a sports fan may be my biggest cause of cognitive dissonance. It can be difficult to go all in on being a sports fan, because of the conflict I have between my beliefs and the obvious transgressions we witness almost daily, usually with team owners, league leadership and governing bodies. But while there is a lot that is wrong with sports, there is also a lot that is right and good with sports.
The quote below is from a speech that Teddy Roosevelt gave at the Sorbonne in 1910. Lines from it are often referred to, quoted, hash-tagged and even tattooed. I once sent this quote to my nephew when he was in high school after alleged adults who supported a rival high school would anonymously post simply awful things online about him, a teenaged athlete.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I am reminded of this quote – and of the goodness of sports – as I watch these Winter Olympics.
Sure, I’m reading the predictably rampant comments on social media this week about how stupid and useless the games are, about the commercialization, the politics, and the geo-politics. Admittedly, they are not all wrong.
On the other hand, any criticisms of the performance of the athletes, to me, are laughable, because they are coming from people who likely couldn’t ever compete in any of those sports, and even more likely from people who never lift themselves from a chair or their fingers from a remote control.
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Where I grew up, the primary winter sport was throwing snowballs at telephone poles and buses. Yet I watch this roster of sports in the Olympics, none of which I ever really participated in (unless you include my wobbly form of ice skating).
At the most basic level, its remarkable what these athletes can do. I have a great appreciation of their acumen and ability, for their work ethic and the sacrifices that have gotten them there.
And respect. I have great respect for what they do.
Maybe that is what I am detecting in this background noise of criticisms and negativity — beyond a lack of understanding, or trying to understand, we don’t have a lot of respect lately, and that goes well beyond sports.
Admittedly, I am not going to watch hours of luge or cross-country skiing. And I don’t think curling is easy because if it was, you’d all be in the Olympics maybe. But I will tune in and watch what I can for a bit, because falling in front of billions of viewers is not failure and finishing 17th in the world at something, anything, is not losing, but still an amazing thing.
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