Every 2 years we sign up for cable so we can watch the Olympics. The Olympics throw off all of our routines and habits. I am very much a “turn on the tv, watch your show and then turn it off” kind of girl. But during the Olympics, we leave the tv on in the background pretty much all of the time while we do other things. There is a US v. AUS women’s water polo game on as I write this.
This Olympics I am noticing a very high level of sportsmanship. I don’t ever remember being as aware of it as I am this year. Perhaps it is in contrast to the divisive political ads (which I usually don’t see because I normally only watch Hulu or Netflix). I think it is more likely that it stands out in contrast to the infantile behavior of our congress.
In just the last 24 hours I have seen Michael Phelps refuse to take the bait (offered mutltiple times by multiple newscasters) to disparage his teammate Ryan Lochte. They keep trying to cast Lochte as Phelps’ competitor and Phelps keeps insisting that Lochte is his teammate. Usain Bolt halted an interview in respect to a medal ceremony and the winning country’s national anthem. And this morning, during a men’s hurdle competition, the Chinese competitor fell and was injured. He was unable to put weight on one of his legs. He tried to hop the course (I kid you not) but when he got to the hurdle, you could see his defeat on his face. The Hungarian hurdler came over and raised the Chinese man’s arm in victory. Other competitors supported his weight as he left the track. It was this last situation that inspired me to write this post.
This year, I have heard time and time again how this year’s teams are particularly solid. The US women’s gymnastics team had 2 best friends pitted again each other. Only one made it into the individual all-around competition. The one who didn’t make it dissolved into tears and apparently spent a long night coming to terms with her loss. Yet she was there in the stands the next day genuinely cheering for her fellow teammates. The same was said for the US 8 rowing team. Their success was attributed to their committment to the success of their fellow teammates.
Sportsmanship at the Olympics is particularly notable because the athletes there Olympics are highly competitive and are all used to being winners. Imagine how different the world would be if we were to emulate some of the sportsmanship I have seen thus far.