The Dojo

I’ moved this here from my PDX weightlifting blog.

I hate this kind of whiny bullshit:

“This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure,” he said.

Ara Abrahamian, a Swedish 84k wrestler, threw down his bronze medal in protest and says he’s now going to quit the sport.

Wow. It’s just a sport, dude. Seriously. If there is one thing i can’t stand, it’s athletes (and coaches) who take their sport too seriously (remember all those yelling coaches in womens/girls gymnastics). Training hard and competing hard do not preclude smiling, being gracious, and taking it all in stride. It’s a huge naive mistake to not see the possibility of working at full force while still being happy. You don’t have to get angry to win. In fact, it’ll probably hurt you.

The other night, I heard a broadcaster berate one of the Japanese gymnasts for laughing at himself after he didn’t do so hot on one of his events. What did the broadcaster think this was? War? Were lives on the line? Did someone die I didn’t know about?

There are people in serious peril (right now) all over the world who would LOVE to get last place at the Olympics, or even last place at a local contest if it meant they could get the hell out of their current situation.

Life can get WAY worse. If you don’t keep that in mind ALWAYS than you are kidding yourself. The struggles of life are NOT relative. Crying because you are caught in traffic, or because you didn’t do as well as you’d hoped and trained for in the Olympics is WRONG. It’s morally wrong. A bit of disappointment is natural and reasonable, but outright anger and melodramatic antics are signs of ignorance and selfish arrogance.

If you aren’t in control of your emotions enough to be gracious, you have no business competing.

I love sports. I love the Olympics. But, it’s all just a game. That’s it. Period. It’s supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be inspiring, no matter how you place. Being a selfish asshole should disqualify you. They should take his medal away.

Swedish coach Leo Myllari said: “It’s all politics.”

Life is politics. Get over it.