Hey Russia, it's not about the medal count!

CNN reports Russian government officials and its citizens are rawther unhappy with their unexpected 11th-place Olympic finish by medal count.   Worse, it sounds like they are being unrawther unpleasant to anyone who didn't medal, or didn't contribute to medaling.   
(http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/03/01/russia.olympics.president/index.html)

Wow, Russia.  Have you missed the point?  You didn't lose face.  It's not about whose medal count is biggest.  (And those of you in the U.S. who are snickering right now because we had the most can pay attention, too.)  The Olympics are a celebration.  They are an elegant celebration of sportsmanship that crosses country, religious, cultural, color, and other borders.  The Olympics is about what we all have in common, not about who comes out on top each time.

C'mon Russia, you are a rich, rich source of cultural and creative arts.  You are impressive wellspring of alternative/energy healing methods and sensible research about them.  You are the gracious hosts for the Olympics in 4 years and we look forward to learning more about you. 

But please get with the celebration.

Life, and sports, is a journey, not an end product.  Results are great, but it's really about how you got there.  If I only cared about who won, I could just check the scores when the Olympics was over.  Instead, I watched as much competition as I could. For the most part, it was a beautiful display of sportsmanship, cameraderie, teamwork, and the results of self-discipline, self-care, self-faith, and stretching beyond your comfort zone to give it your all.  That inspires me.

Yes, it's a lot of fun to win.  We take turns winning.  But there's a lot more to a winning attitude and a winning culture than counting who has the most marbles at the end of the day. 

Here's the thing:  Why not honor all your athletes?  They hauled their butts across several time zones and gave it their all.  Why not give them ALL a financial bonus, not just the ones whi medaled?  Why not celebrate the fact that you love them so much because they're Russian and you know they're wonderful even if the judges didn't think so this time around.  Give them all a special government medal because they went, they tried, and they had a tough time yet you know and honor their true potential. 

Here's to you Russia, to your highest Potential.  And here's to all of ours, too, because we are walking this journey together.  We can lift each other up, or we can drag each other down. 

I like the "up" option.  See you in Sochi.

Comments

[Stefanos]

Thanks for the post!