Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Team sports

Hey folks!

Today marks the last entry about the Olympic Day celebration one week ago. I wrote about my chat with Paul and Christopher about the importance of school. Then, I also took up Mr. Schauer's opening words about how taking part in the Olympics and taking part in the Olympiad are actually two different things. So what's left today, is a little retrospective about Peter Seisenbacher's short presentation at the celebrations.

Peter Seisenbacher is an Austrian icon when it comes to (summer sports). He was the first (and I believe up to today the only) heavy weight judoka to defend his title at two consecutive Olympic Games. And while my country is used to such heroes when it comes to winter sports, it's rather uncommon that we have such dominant athletes in the summer. When asked about his success, Mr. Seisenbacher picked this up and said:

"I think what made me successful during my career was that I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a dedicated team, where everybody knew his place and was fighting for a common goal. That's neither the easiest nor the most comfortable way, however, that's in my opinion the way to be successful."

Being given this quote, I think it's funny that one classification still differentiates between "individual sports" and "team sports". While this was true maybe some decades ago (I doubt that Jesse Owens was supported by a nutritionist or mental coach), I think that it is hopelessly outdated nowadays. Like Mr. Seisenbacher said: To be successful, you need a dedicated and competent team. So I guess the only difference between so-called individual and team sports is that with a team sport, there is at least one other guy competing. However, behind the scenes, all athletes have to rely on their coaches, physiotherapists, sport psychologists etc... to be successful. I wonder how long it will take for them to be recognized with a shiny medal as well... ;)

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