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The Olympics today, like in ancient times, allow the athletes the chance to compete against themselves for their own personal self-fulfillment. Even though prizes and publicity are part of the Olympic process, personal achievement and friendships are by far better prizes, ones that each athlete can win.
Though competition is involved, Olympic athletes are really not out to compete against anyone but themselves. I learned about this as a member of the Highland High School cross country track team for three years. After talking with one of my track teammates after a track meet, I asked him how his races had gone. He was the number one runner on our long distance team. He said that the races had gone OK, but he was not too enthusiastic about the meet, even though he had won all of his races. He personally didn’t feel that he had done all that well. He felt that he could have pushed himself harder to get a better time. It didn’t matter to him that he had beaten everyone else, he was worried about his own personal effort, how good his time was in comparison to other races he had ran. This epitomized the spirit of the Olympics because Olympic athletes don’t boast or brag about how good they do or who they beat–they focus on how they can become better independent of everyone else.
A good representation of the Olympic spirit is seen in Jim Shea, who won a gold medal in the Men’s Skeleton race. After winning the gold medal, he expressed his feelings that medals weren’t as important as his friendships. He mentioned that friendships and bringing the world together was more important than winning or losing. "Now that I have a gold medal I can honestly say that friendships are more important," Shea said. "It's about the world coming together in a great, peaceful way. I got some great friends up here. I've got some great friends that aren't here." I think that some of my closest friendships were made through participating in cross country track. The team members that I competed with and against are still friends even though we are all doing our own thing. The memories of track and my friendships through track will always be with me, even though I didn’t always win my races.
The Olympics are all about personal achievement. My junior year of high school I was very stressed out due to heavy school work and training for the cross country team. I wasn’t getting much sleep and was often tired. I also was the slowest member of my cross country team. For the first few cross-country meets, my race times were not improving, they were only getting worse. In the final track meet of the year, I beat my worst time from the previous meet by over two and a half minutes. Even though I didn’t win the race, I achieved a victory. My training had finally paid off and I was satisfied.
I have a friend that attended the Women’s Biathalon competition that was held near Heber, Utah. The race was won by Norway, but everyone that raced received just as much support from the crowd as the winner. The American team finished last, 12 minutes behind the winner. But they got the loudest cheers and applause from their spectators because they held on and finished even though they were last. They pushed it to the end and finished the race. Olympic sports are not always about winning and losing, they are about trying your best and finishing the race.
When I was on the national track team, the National Association of Blind Athletes, my guide runner confessed to me that he had once dropped out of a race. He told me that he regretted this and that I should never drop out of a race. Sometimes we feel like dropping out of a race but we never should because you will always be left with the memory that if you would have held on a little longer you could have finished. When you finish a race, you feel fulfilled because you were able to keep up your mental strength and keep going, even though practically every muscle in your body is telling you to drop out and stop.
The Olympics and other amateur sports give athletes the chance to challenge themselves and achieve their own personal goals. They prove to themselves that they can achieve personal victory as long as they keep up their mental strength and self-discipline. These athletes are at peace with the world because friendships are more important than winning. Every race is a challenge and every challenge in life is a race. Olympic athletes do not boast about winning–they are more interested in their personal achievements and becoming better at what they do. That is the true Olympic spirit.
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