This week I read an article about the Czech Prime Minister’s, Mirek Topolánek, disappointment with Czech’s low medal showing in Beijing which really hit home, in my opinion, about what having a bad view of sport is. From what I read it would seem that WINNING is what matters. Now I’m all for winning, but is that the “Olympic Spirit”. It can, again in my opinion, be said that this was China’s goal for the games, or for that matter many countries. It was a classic case of Lombardi’s (extreme) position of “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” I know, I know, he might have been misquoted and meant to say, “Winning isn’t everything. The will to win is the only thing.” Either way sportsmen and women across this world have lived the “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” life and it leaves them wrecked in the end, because it’s simply not true. Well here are a couple of interesting quotes, about this played out here in Czech, that I found interesting.
Few sports fans in the Czech Republic will forget the recent Beijing Olympics, where the country notched up six medals, three silver and three gold. The games featured a number of gripping stories, including the very first gold medal win of the games by shooter Kate?ina Emmons as well as Barbora Špotáková’s stunning last-minute win in the javelin. Yet days since the Olympics ended, the country’s prime minister, Mirek Topolánek, has now expressed disappointment. On Wednesday, Mladá fronta Dnes writes, he stated flatly that Czechs should have won more medals, given how much money the state spends on sport. He made clear, too, that there could now be changes to come.
“I have no problem with those who provide the funding managing how funds are spent. That’s their right. But to suggest that our athletes did too little just days after the Olympics, that’s simply insulting. Sport isn’t math, and even the best–trained and most talented athletes, after hundreds of hours of training, can come up short. I can’t imagine what we’d say to other excellent athletes, such as US shooter Mathew Emmons, if he were Czech. He had the misfortune of losing gold – not once, but twice – at the Olympics.”