This morning I read a thread on Facebook about a young Olympian who opted not to perform in her sport because she was doing it to please rather than be excellent. At that moment, just before her performance, she decided not to perform. It was a decision that she received much praise for following her truth, being true to herself.
And yet I could point to some facts: she wanted to represent her country and had competed and worked very hard to achieve her level of skill. She won out over other deserving girls who did not get the chance to compete in the Olympics. Is this truth?
As a young person, I competed and lettered 9 times in high school. To compete means you have a lot of energy, sometimes trepidation about how well you will perform against the measure of how well others perform. But, in the end, you have to do your best and forget all the noise about the competition and work to do the best ever each time.
I saw a failure of this young woman who followed the conversations in her head rather than the skill in her body as truth. She felt alone in her journey, so even if the thoughts were dominating, she had an opportunity to ask God to help her rise beyond the fears, beyond the noise in her head, and do what she had worked years to achieve. So the failings were in the mind, not actual feelings, and in her faith, which is the connection with a source greater than herself, namely God.
I have to imagine this will always live in the young woman’s mind as a shame and embarrassment. It will live as a failure and will define her. She may heal and use it as a reference to never do that path again, which may well serve her. When you have a personal epic fail, no matter how many people say to her, don’t worry, honey, it’s ok, it’s an athlete’s heart and mind it really never is. She will likely distance herself from her sport if it is left unhealed.
In this conversation, I have to wonder about our recent Olympians who are failing, who are not standing proud when the flag is raised, being a fantastic representation of our wonderful country with all its freedoms. Perhaps there should be a physical test to enter into the competition and a test of convictions and loyalty to the country. People want to experience national pride with our greatest athletes. I never had the skill to get to that level, but in past times I especially loved the figure skating competitions and watched all that I could to get a glimpse at these incredibly graceful artists on ice.
In a year dedicated to purity and truth, it is interesting to see how low on the scale of purity our language has dropped ‘truth.’
