when winners turn losers
Welcome to the Knackered Hack. If you enjoy the following article you might also like my interview with Black Swan author Nassim Taleb. Then feel free to sign up to the RSS feed or for regular email updates. You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here. Thanks for visiting!
from Knackered Downunder
Beyond the new records and medals, the just-ended Swimming World Championships in Melbourne showed that sportsmanship and humility live on. Swimmers, it seems, are a breed apart, displaying a humility increasingly uncharacteristic of sports. It probably also explains their continued appeal. Just look at Grant Hackett and Michael Phelps.
Hackett — the Australian swimming champion — again proved the old adage that sports isn’t just about winning, but also about participation and attitude. It sounds trite, but his commitment to such views shows why he continues to inspire Australian sportsmen and women as well as schoolchildren.
Hackett’s difficulties began on March 28 when he struggled badly and finished second to last in the 800m freestyle final. The outcome cast widespread doubts on whether he would stay in for the 1500m freestyle, where he has been the undisputed king these last 10 years.
When asked why he swam in the 800m, despite poor form and the possibility of humiliation, the 26-year-old replied, “You can’t just go in a race just for the sake of winning it,” and “You’ve got to get in there and give the best you can.”
“Tonight I did the best I could, and unfortunately it wasn’t a great result, but you’ve got to put up with these situations and keep a smile on your face and move forward,” Hackett said. He did eventually qualify for the 1,500m final but came in seventh on April 1.
Again, listen to his response: “I guess the positive side is that I produced two sub-15-minute swims (heats and final), while I was at one of the lowest points of my career, so to get up and do that and just face the challenge of getting on the blocks, it took a bit physically and emotionally to do that.”
“It’s disappointing that I came seventh. I’m not going to lie, I do not enjoy it. I’ve just go to use this to motivate me and to do everything correctly in my preparation to be able to push forward to Beijing,” a philosophical Hackett said.
“I was very close to not swimming. I knew my form was way off my best here and I knew it was always going to be a difficult race,” he said. “You don’t just turn away just because you think you can’t win regardless of the track record you’ve had in the past.”
Similarly, Phelps — the American swimmer who won seven gold medals at the championships — showed no hard feelings about his failure to win an eighth through no fault of his own. Phelps was widely expected to clinch this final medal in the 4×100 medley relay on April 1, but the American team was disqualified in the heats after teammate Ian Crocker jumped in too early during a changeover.
“When Team USA comes into a swim meeting, we come in as a team and we leave as a team,” the 21-year-old said. “There are things that don’t happen exactly how you’d like but better to happen now than next year.”
“We’re disappointed, but I think we’re going to build off it and have a good Olympic year next year,” said the man dubbed the “greatest swimmer ever”.
Donate and help me buy back my Fender ('About' tells you why) Share This Tags: Beijing-2008-Olympics, competition-and-performance, endurance, failure, grant_hackett, humility, michael_phelps, training
hackett showed character to risk embarassment. it seems to be more common to bottle these days. on the other hand, an athlete should probably pull from competition if the event itself will risk injury or interfere with training to peak performance.
test
this is a test