expectations

Let's say a Winter Olympic athlete earns a silver medal and another gets the bronze. Both are incredible achievements, and yet oftentimes the recipient of the silver medal can be made to feel like a failure and have to answer for coming up short while the bronze medalist can be built up like having had the moment of a lifetime. It's a shame that anyone should feel like a failure - geez, just to compete at such a level...

This is a scenario I've thought about for awhile, but was reminded of now that the Winter Games are happening in Vancouver. It could really happen in any competition though. The point I'm trying to make is say, for instance, an athlete has been the presumed next Olympic champion, having won the World Championships for several years in a row. Yet, for whatever reason, ended up just short and won the Silver medal instead at the Olympics. Oh, how the media grinds the story down and asks the athlete the same line of questioning over and over again, "What happened? Are you disappointed? Does this put a stain on your career?" and so on. On the other hand, let's say another athlete wasn't expected to medal at all, and somehow defies the odds and comes away with a bronze - "How does it feel? You must be on Cloud Nine! An Olympic medal... WOW!" All wonderful and deserved sentiments, and yet the silver medalist in this example has been made to feel like they failed.

It reminds me of professional sports teams. I've experienced how wonderful it was to have been a 49er fan during their championship years. It was quite a run where they ended up winning multiple Super Bowls. Yet the years when they went deep into the playoffs but fell short of the Super Bowl were seen as failed seasons. Compare that to teams that hadn't been to the playoffs for years but finally making it - I've never seen such happy fans! It will happen when the current 49er team qualifies for the playoffs after such a long drought - such joy and excitement! All because of expectations. In that way, it will have been a better season than those where the team was expected to win it all, but came up just short.

Another example that comes to mind is the most recent Warriors run in the playoffs where they beat a heavily favored Dallas team in the first round. Even though the Warriors were eliminated by their next opponents, they were the toast of the league. As a Warrior fan, it was maybe even more emotionally satisfying than it was for the eventual NBA champions that year! It's interesting to have experienced that season with the Warriors, and also the years with the 49ers where making the playoffs was ho-hum and anything short of winning the Super Bowl was considered a failure.

I guess that's part of being human: expectations. And particularly difficult for Olympic athletes.