~ Looser's are Winners...~

Sports have been an integral part of one life, during our younger days almost everyone was engrossed in playing his / her favorite sport till eternity – the only time we went back home was due to a reprimand from our vociferous grandparents…

Now that many of us sit at the cool comforts of our homes and watch the Olympics, there are many teachings that the sport camaraderie tells and speaks volumes about.

For many a ‘Bronze’ is a well-deserved medal than a ‘Silver’ which though has a high pedestal when one receives it, but it is only ‘Won’ when you fail, quite contrary to the Bronze which you have to “win” to procure it! so when our favorite P.V Sidhu won the coveted Bronze medal, it taught me a lesson , you have to fight till the end when you have fought your battle and still emerge as a winner after many defeats!

By this logic, a Bronze medal winner is happier than a ‘Silver’ medalist though he has a higher rank. The Bronze medal has been won by the grit of the player though he lost his contention to ‘Gold’ or ‘Silver’. The player does not loose his aim even after the defeat and continues till the last end with a hope of ‘Winning’ the ‘Bronze’.

Following the Olympics spirit, we have seen many examples of humane emotions overpowering the power knacks of sportsmen. A case in point is Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi facing Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim in the final of Men’s high jump when the Italian was injured and was not able to compete further – earlier both had jumped 2.37 meters and were on a tie! The sportsman spirit took the better off the Qatari athlete and he withdrew from the final jump and thus another sporting history was made – that the ‘Gold was shared for the first time in the Men’s high jump event on compassionate grounds!” , though Olympic rules allowed this to happen and due permissions were taken on this before arriving at any decision.

For many of us this is no little wonder, Olympic Gold is the ornament one would like to wear as a triumph of a powerful win in an event – it strongly portrays the effort and shinning spirit of the athlete to be at the top – a well deserved notion of a winner!

From motivational adverts “ Ma mein gold wapas le aayi” by Bhawani Devi - India’s first fencer to qualify for Tokyo Olympics’21, the charisma outshines other aspects of life – the shine of the metal overshadows all other ‘misses’ and one creates history, though this time a small step but the vision and focus have set ground for others to emulate, your name gets embarked in the memories of time for ever.

The precincts of the games give you an adrenaline rush down your spine, with zillion watchful eyes for that ‘Golden’ moment, it surely takes guts to offer your ‘Gold’ to someone else – there are no winners but only presets which become historical moments of time and are always remembered for its beauty and uniqueness.

There are many dejections too but every failure again teaches us that we are lacking behind in our effort as the opponent has something which you still have to achieve in order to get past him. The testimony of time is the only motivation one can have to achieve the unachievable. So when Indian weightlifter ‘Mirabai Chanu’ gets us a Silver, the first of its kind in our Olympic history, the whole country erupts – the story unfolds when she tells us about the hard work and toil she has gone through for that piece of metal. We all concur with the results but conveniently skip the journey!

So next time when someone stands on the pedestal, think about the path the sportsman has treaded to stand infront of the camera for those eye-catching moments, we should be engrossed in our thoughts about the slog and sweat one must have gone through to be where they are!