The Best of Sport: Citius, Altius, Fortius

This is the final installment of the series on the Best and Worst of Sports, chronicling the 2012 Olympics and the Scandal at Penn State University.

The 4 X 400m men’s Olympic final was one of the coolest things that I’ve ever seen. No record was set and the country I rooted for didn’t win, but for 3 minutes, such a tremendous display of humanity was put forth on the track at Olympic Stadium in London, nearly leaving me breathless as I watched.

The Bahamas took home the Gold in the relay, a race that is typically the pinnacle event of every track meet. The Bahamas? Really? If it weren’t for the Beach Boys and postcards, I don’t even know if I would know the Bahamas existed! And yet, out of obscurity comes the fastest team on earth at that distance. How beautiful is that—that a country the size of Connecticut, with the population that rivals Bakersfield, California, could defeat the largest, and most talent-filled countries on the planet. And isn’t that a wonderful lesson: Grandeur pales in comparison with hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence.

The second lesson I learned watching the race was learned seeing something that in my lifetime, I hadn’t seen before: the United States not winning the Gold medal in the event. Only five times in the history of the modern Games has this been the case. And yet there was not bitterness or disappointment from the Americans. They were beat in the world’s most objective sport, and they lost. They still WON a silver medal, even after two of their best athletes had been taken out with injury. But they were grateful for the opportunity to compete. How awesome and oft-forgotten is that? Sport is enjoyable, and it’s a joy simply to compete. You could see that, too in the last-place finishers in the race: the South African Team. The much publicized Oscar Pistorius, running on two prosthetic legs, running in his first Olympics, anchored the historic run for the South Africans. The team had only been allowed to run after they had protested their disappointing finish in the semi-final due to a nasty fall. And yet there was such gratitude in their athletes! How often do we pout after we lose a game or we have a call go against us? The 4 X 400 reminded me of yet another important lesson: The joy of competition is not in winning, but in competing.

Most people that compete in the Olympics lose. In fact, almost ALL athletes lose. Many athletes train their whole lives to come to the Olympics and lose in the first heat of a 10 second race. Why do they fly across the world and why do we watch? It’s because the Olympics has more to do with being better than the best. If your focus is self-improvement, it is entirely up to you if you can succeed. In competing, we cannot predict the valor of an opponent, but we can control our pursuit of excellence. We participate because it’s fun, and we continue because there is something in us that pushes us to do the “more.”

After all, the motto of the Olympics is not “Fastest, Highest, Strongest,” because only one person can be that, but we can ALL be Faster, Higher, and Stronger.