The 2024 Paris Olympics has come to an end. As we watched the athletes streaming into Stade de France for the very last time waving flags, gleaming smiles and flashing medals, we sat back to reflect on the last 16 days.
Paris hosted a spectacular event filled with sparkles, glamour, controversy, joys and despair. There was so much to watch and too little time. We had to make a choice and stick to it, relying on replays and social media to keep us up to date with other sports.
We chose swimming and athletics as our main focus. We did bump into a few other sports by mistake or on purpose. Chantal somersaulted into some gymnastics and the magnificent performances by Simone Biles. She ducked as divers looped backwards off the board, their heads coming too, too close to that concrete.
By mistake Matthew served to watch the finals of the table tennis. He marvelled at the speed and dexterity of the Chinese contestants, already number one and two in the world, battling it out against each other once again. Then to the bigger court, red clayed and surrounded by Spanish and Serbian and other tennis loving spectators. Matthew held his breath as Novak Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz to finally win an Olympic gold medal.
Cheering and yelling
We watched with pride as Tatjana Smith won gold for the 100m breaststroke and silver for the 200m breaststroke, showing no visible disappointment at her loss to USA’s Kate Douglas. We groaned in disappointment when Akani Simbine was pipped into fourth again in the 100m sprints and celebrated loudly when he and his team mates won silver in the 4x100 relay. In the second last day of the Games we were able to virtually high-five Jo-Ane van Dyk streaking into silver with her javelin.
It wasn’t just about the small contingent of South Africans and our comparatively meagre medal count, placing us in 44th place overall with one gold medal, three silver and a bronze. We cheered on Canadian Ethan Katzberg, the most unlikely looking champion hammer-throw his way into gold and the record books. We gasped as the magnificent Armand Mondo Duplantis soared over an impossible height to pole vault gold while breaking his own world record.
We whooped at the middle and long distance women runners from Kenya and Ethiopia, and an Ethiopian who runs for the Netherlands. And of course we yelled in delight at Letsile Tebogo from Botswana who convincingly won the 200m sprint.
Not all can win
Of course the athletes go to win, but they cannot all win. Showing up and taking part is quite a feat in itself. There are those that show up to win but do not, and it is in the losing that the measure of the person is truly revealed. Two men in particular showed how to, and how not to, lose.
Both arrogant and young-ish. Blowing their own horns and declaring themselves winners before they had started the race. Noah Lyles, Team USA’s 27 year old, flashy, exuberant, loud and proud sprinter.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen, 23 year old, cocky, strutting, Norwegian middle distance runner “played” the field in his 1500m heats and got up the nose of his arch rival, Britain’s Josh Kerr’s. We all know pride comes before a fall.
Game on! It’s rugby time again. Matthew is an ardent Springbok supporter and a couple of years ago went all in to support them at a live game.
"I'll be winning"
After winning the 100m by five-thousandths of a second, the equivalent of .005 of one tick of the clock, Noah Lyles was pumped. You could not keep a good chest beater down. He was on to win the 200m too. He said that the other competitors would “be depressed” as he came off the turn. “I’ll be winning”, he said.
Bounding into the stadium with arms raised, the showman looked as if he had already won the race. As we all know, he had not and did not. He came third. Third. A bronze Olympic medal. For most a great achievement, but maybe not for him where all that glitters is only gold.
As he crashed over the finish line behind two other athletes, he turned in an Oscar-winning performance of a suddenly “so-called COVID positive” athlete. He collapsed on the track and had to be taken off in a wheelchair. Two days later, though, he posted on X: “Thank God, I am Covid free.”
So now he was not actually positive for COVID. Anymore? Ever? Who knows but it seemed to impact his teammates who performed dismally at the 4 x 100m relay, bumping into each other and coming nowhere after being disqualified for a botched handover.
Chantal’s son, Judson, recently became the proud owner of a new road-rocket, er car!
On the other side
On the other side of the track was Jakob Ingebrigtsen, similarly puffed up and performing about his 1500m win to be. It wasn’t. He didn’t even medal, he came fourth! An almighty blow to his ego.
His response to his loss, however, was the polar opposite to that of Noah’s. Following his defeat he said this on his Instagram post:
“My team always say that “because you have a big mouth and is the one to beat, you have everything to lose in competitions.” Today Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Josh Kerr outsmarted me. They were “the best guys” when it really mattered. And I want to congratulate them all on a great performance!”
Four days later Ingebrigtsen came out to win the 5000m race. No theatrics, no strutting. He just got down and ran the race and won. He used his loss to motivate himself to do better at his next event.
Ingebrigtsen said that refocusing after an earlier disappointment “is a big part of sports,” and we know that the ability to bounce back after a setback is a key aspect of emotional fitness. Failure is an inherent feature of sport. You cannot always win. But it is in how you lose that can make the difference between a top athlete and a true champion.
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An inspiring winner
And then there was Gabby Thomas, the American athlete who caught our attention on the track with her power, grace, and humility. She let her achievements do the talking, both on and off the track.
She graduated from Harvard with a degree in neurobiology, and then went on to earn a master’s degree in public health at the University of Texas. She made history as the first Harvard graduate to win an Olympic gold medal. She continues to give back to her community by working at a volunteer health-care clinic.
We are keen advocates of leveraging affirmations and using visualisation for building better emotional fitness. Gabby concurs. In the week leading up to her 200m final, she wrote down the affirmation “I am an Olympic champion” over 500 times a day. She visualised herself crossing the finish line as the winner and then went about her day as usual. In an interview she said that “half the battle is mental.”
Gabby’s commitment clearly paid off. She secured the highest number of medals for Team USA in track and field at the Paris Olympics.
At the press conference after his race, Letsile Tebogo was asked if he saw himself as the face of athletics having won the 200m sprint. He did not think so. We agree, because the qualities Gabby embodies makes her a clear choice for us when it comes choosing who should be the face of athletics.
Winning takes work, losing takes courage and knowing that there is something other than the glory sport brings makes a real hero.
Until next time.
Yours in feeling,
Matthew & Chantal
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5th Place
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