The Olympics is best known for the winners--those who at the end of the day take home the medals gold, silver and bronze. Those victories are easy to celebrate and be happy about because we can see how big all of an athlete’s hard work has paid off by the award they’ve won. But what about athletes who work hard and never see that pay off, because of injury?
I was reminded of this part of the Olympics while watching weightlifting competitions earlier this week. The event was the “clean and jerk”, an exercise where athletes take a large amount of weight on the bar, squat it and then thrust their body upward to lift the bar high over their head. It’s a complicated move for anyone, but at this heavy a weight, it’s a true test.
Everyone had been training for their entire lives, putting in hours getting ready for this one lift. One man, a Brazilian lifter, had been training especially hard for the last four years, trying to come back from failing to medal at the 2004 games. But on this day, his thumb was wrapped in an ace bandage. The announcers wondered if that one small wrap would be the downfall of this mighty man.
Sadly, it was. Twice he squatted down, closed his eyes, let out a breath and tried to lift the bar for the squat. And twice, his left arm popped off the bar from the pain in his thumb. He simply couldn’t lock on to the heavy weight with his grip. Four years of work had all been for nothing.
Despite his sadness, the lifter held his emotions in well. When asked what he would do, he said that all he could do was work hard and try again. That, I think, is one of the most important lessons in sports: hard times can’t be conquered with a bad attitude, just by hard work.
Have you had any difficult times in the sports you’ve played? What hard work have you done to overcome it?
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