The real champions of the first prize

This weekend I left the TV on, so I could watch some sports in between everything else which I was doing.

I didn’t really do a lot, though. I was supposed to work, but as I opened the files to do some reviewing and grading it all just felt overwhelming and I postponed it. I sat there for a couple of hours clicking back and forth between files and just wasted a lot of time. Getting more coffee took quite a long time as I dwelled at every piece of distraction I passed by. Pictures I have seen every day for 40 years and such…

Work is still not done, and I know I have to do it real soon, but I am working on a plan which will make it more bearable. I just need to set deadlines and what to do when. Baby steps; but slowly getting there (I keep giving my students new tasks, but that is something I just have to calculate with. Read: ignore for now.)

Anyway, I was “watching” sports. Every time the commentator got excited I ran to the TV to see what was going on. It was cross country skiing and biathlon, sports the Norwegians are usually pretty good at, and there were quite a few exiting moments… and a few medals won. By the Norwegians, I mean (which is what counts).

As a nation we all want to take part in the success and we chant “victory is ours” and “WE won!” as if we all took part in the achievement.

And then and there we all believe it could have been us, it could have been we who were in great shape and as fit as the heroes and sticking out the pain it must be to push the body to its limits and drain every last drop of energy out of the body.

(Of course I know, deep in my heart, I don’t even have enough stamina to even rise from the sofa to get another cup of coffee. Not right now, anyway.)

As I was watching I came to think about what it must cost to be a top-level athlete, or any other outstanding performer of some sort.

Of course they give up many of the pleasures ordinary people find to be the joy of their life. They pick up on routines and diets we have no premises to even comprehend, and yet I can’t help but thinking they must do what they love the most, they pay the price and still want to continue.

By the time they turn old enough to show off results and have a paid apparatus to support them, somebody has already put down a lot of work, money, mileage, gas, time and effort to let them (and at times pushed them) keep on doing the sport they chose.

Somebody has been keeping track of time schedules, practice, training weekends, driven them to games and/or competitions, bought up to date equipment (often to a high expense and sacrificing things they wanted for themselves and others).

They have been out in all kinds of weather conditions, cheering their own and other kids on. Comforting when the kids felt they did badly and bragging like crazy when they did well. (And, perhaps the most impressive aspect of it all: they took on the laundry!)

At the same time they have been responsible for and done a lot of voluntary work raising money and keeping arenas, stadiums, tracks and facilities up to date and in good condition. Not to forget turning up serving as crew whenever an event took place… and I suspect there are quite a few pictures and videos around, showing every feat the children performed.

I am talking about the parents (often to a few of the team members) and the coaches who took on the challenge it is to guide very young children with no sense of discipline or persistence what so ever.

To all the adults who have been there for the kids, who invested themselves in the very young hopeful ones, who saw the talents and encouraged them and made them want to become Champions: CONGRATULATIONS!