Calm, Cool and Relaxed
I know I am not alone when I say that the Olympics contain the most riveting sports events that a person can find. There are many tears, of both joy and sadness, that go hand in hand with these sporting events. These tears are accompanied by winners and losers, good sportsmanship and bad sportsmanship. A great example of bad sportsmanship is demonstrated by the country of Russia, in regards to Evgeni Plushenko's loss to America's Evan Lysacek in the men's figure skating finals. Before the finals, Plushenko states:
"I am looking forward to the free skate because there will be more adrenaline and a bunch of the competitors and the spectators will enjoy it even more," Plushenko said. "I will enjoy it even more. It will be a great competition."
Plushenko
However, when he lost his second gold medal in the event to American Evan Lysacek, he was not so happy. He was a very poor sport and held a sour face all through the medal ceremony. His fellow Russian's were making claims somewhere along the lines of "Plushenko deserved this more, he did harder tricks and he was better," they were not happy that he got second place, which in the Olympics is an accomplishment in and of itself in my opinion, and they were going to make sure people knew of it.
Included in these 2010 Winter Olympics is, of course, the infamous Shaun White competing in the men's snowboarding halfpipe. In my opinion, the snowboarders are the most laid back competitors in the Olympics, so when they lose, they are all very good sports about it and they congratulate their opponents. While watching the men's halfpipe, my parents and I observed a very calm, cool and relaxed attitude from all of the snowboarders. And when one of them didn't perform thier best run, they still congratulated those who did better than them; they were not sour about it, they just seemed happy to be able to compete in the Olympics at all!
My point is that in any level of competition, athletes should still have good attitudes towards their opponents and not be sore losers. The Russians, clearly, were not taught this attitude in regards to men's figure skating, but all of the snowboarders, no matter the nationality, were all very supportive of each other and happy to be there.
Comments
Chelsea- I really liked what
Chelsea-
I really liked what you were getting across here- sportsmanship is such a huge issue especially with the current Olympic games. I liked the contrast you presented between the attitudes of the athletes from different sports and that difference is clear when you watch the competition. I feel that part of this could come from the amount of pressure and prestige each event seems to have. For instance, using your example, men's figure skating seems to have a lot more pressure placed upon it than snowboarding because of its longstanding tradition and popularity. I think that this makes the athletes there feel that pressure, whereas snowboarding is laid back, and become overly competitive. Excellent post!
-Curtin...out