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An Olympic question

In the midst of the 2004 Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece, much was made of the number of medals, gold, silver, and bronze, won by the competing athletes, and deservedly so.

Then there were the agonizing stories of those who had trained for years to compete in their chosen events, only to fall short on one particular day.

But, and it is a big but, media coverage, be it television or print, tended to highlight the number of medals won by nations, so many by big countries, so few by little ones. Each day's awards were tabulated by "country".

The emphasis on nationalism seems to grow with each passing Olympiad.

Is this what the Olympic Games are all about?

How many people can recall at a moment's notice how many medals were won by individual nations at specific games? There are some who can cite such statistics, but there is an overwhelming number who remember individual athletes such as Fanny Blankers-Koen, Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Ian Thorpe, Emil Zatopek, Mark Spitz, Martin Sheridan, Nadia Comaneci, Mildred Didriksen, to name but a few, because of their athleticism, their sport, the spirit they displayed as runners, swimmers, boxers, javelin throwers.

Sheridan was a javelin thrower from Bohala, in "Mayo, God help us."

It is the individual upon whom the focus rightly belongs.

Lengthy interviews with, forgive the term, losers, while of great interest to family, friends, community, and sympathizers, divert attention from those who prevailed, those who captured a spot in Olympic history because of individual or team effort, those who claimed the title of champion.

The traditional "If you win, say little; if you lose, say less" is reversed when television viewers are subjected to a seemingly endless procession of replays focusing on one country or another's athletes coming fourth, tenth, or last as the case may be, while their "mistakes" are painstakingly pointed out by a commentator claiming competence to act as an expert on each and every facet of their failure.

As an aside, it's a pity there are no medals awarded for alliteration, in the Olympics or elsewhere.

The other admonition, "It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, but how you play the game", deserves recollection, especially in the case of athletes from countries that have never, repeat never, appeared in any winning column, in any sport, in any Olympics.

Knowing they have little chance of success, they are competitors in the true spirit of sport. They turn up. They do their best. They win no medals. Their names are seldom mentioned. But each has an accomplishment of which to be proud for life, not as a Hungarian Olympian, not as a Bulgarian Olympian, not as an American, Canadian, British, Irish, Dutch, French, Afghanistan, or any other nationality Olympian.

The simple statement, "I was an Olympian", says it all.

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