Comment | Why do we need to see the “losers” of the Olympics?
2024-08-11
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The Olympics is not just about the "battle of the gods" of the world's top athletes, it is also about telling every ordinary person a story about dreams: having dreams and fighting for them is worth it.
The Paris Olympics is coming to an end. The closing ceremony of the 33rd Paris Olympics will be held at 21:00 on the evening of August 11, Paris time. People will never forget this wonderful Olympic Games, during which many athletes presented us with thrilling games and brought us spiritual baptism - the Olympic spirit was presented intensively and concretely in a short period of time.
The highlight of the Olympics always seems to be the competition for gold and silver medals. When people open the news, the good news of gold and silver medals and the performances of star athletes occupy almost all the shots in an overwhelming number.
But there are also a group of "losers" in the Olympics who have also given everything for the Olympics. Some have sacrificed their youth, some have suffered from injuries, and some are just reserve athletes. Their Olympic journeys ended hastily before they even began. Such an important part of their lives has hardly left any record in the news, and before any ripples have appeared, they have disappeared without a trace.
Recently, some media focused on a group of such athletes: 35-year-old Chinese female pole vaulter Li Ling, had to withdraw from the Olympics because she strained her hamstring tendon during training just three days before the opening of the Olympics; 28-year-old Chinese male gymnast Sun Wei returned to China for treatment the day before the opening of the Paris Olympics because of his injury; 33-year-old Chinese equestrian athlete Sun Huadong had to withdraw early due to the injury of his beloved horse Lady Chin; Chinese women's basketball players Pan Zhenqi and Jin Vina, who were not selected for the final list after arriving in Paris, had to return home early. They are also around 30 years old.
↑ Li Ling in the women's pole vault final at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. Photo courtesy of Visual China
It is difficult to summarize their contribution to sports in a few words. They are not inferior to the athletes who appear on the field, just like Li Ling, who has practiced pole vaulting for 23 years and has set an Asian record, but has always been unlucky and has performed poorly in the Olympic arena. She still wants to make a breakthrough at the age of 35. In fact, from the ages mentioned above, people can also see that their Olympic dreams may end at this Olympics.
This is the cruelty of competitive sports. The Olympics only happen once every four years, and the golden age of athletes is so short that once they are over 30, they are called "veterans". They once had ambitious goals, but in the end, they ended up with regrets.
But these Olympic "losers" are equally worthy of being seen.The Olympics, which has a history of more than 100 years and is broadcast live to billions of viewers around the world, is not just about the "battle of the gods" between the world's top athletes. It is also about telling a story about dreams to every ordinary person: we have had dreams and fought for them, and that is worth it.。
If you think about it carefully, these Olympic "failures" are more like most of us - of course, ordinary people will not have the opportunity to knock on the door of the Olympics, but those efforts have left regrets. After all, dreams are just the narrative trajectory of dreams, which is more in line with our ordinary lives.
The Olympics also gave us an opportunity to reflect on ourselves. The meaning of dreams does not only exist at the moment of realization. Dreams hang high in front of us, inspiring unyielding fighting spirit, infusing us with tenacious faith, expanding the depth of life, and adding an epic of wind and rain to life. This is the meaning. Just like the epitaph of the French writer Stendhal, "lived, loved, wrote", if there are a few colorful past tenses in life, it is already bright enough.
As the Paris Olympics draws to a close, we pay attention to these "losers" to pay tribute to these great athletes and to look back to the original core of the sports spirit.Sports may not guarantee that everyone gets the honor they deserve, but the sweat and tears, heartbeats and excitement it brings are real and perhaps the most important - there are always a few moments when you are moved by the power of life. This is the irreplaceable value of sports, which is both warm and shocking.
Yi Zhi, special commentator of Red Star News
Editor: Wang Yintao
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