The Best

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” —Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic Games

It happens every four years; once in the winter and once in the summer.? For a period of two weeks special programming will disrupt regularly scheduled television.? Morning and evening newscasts will carry the highlights of the day’s events, and the medal count will be almost as important as? daily market performance.? For the participants, years of preparation, training and coaching will come down to a two week span during which they will compete for designation as a medalist.? There will be those who win a bronze or silver medal, but it is the gold medal that carries the greatest significance because the individual or team wearing it is designated as being, “The Best”.

This quest to be the best speaks to our nature.? The first written evidence of the official Games dates from 776 BC, when the Greeks began measuring time in Olympiads, or the duration between each edition of the Olympic Games.? In 393 AD, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the Olympic Games for religious reasons, claiming that they encouraged paganism. Fifteen hundred years later they would be revived.? In April,1896, the first Olympic Games of the modern era took place in Athens, the country where the original Games took place in antiquity.

As a competitive event, the Olympics fosters both individual and team rivalries.? The daily medal count becomes newsworthy and athletes who win multiple medals take on an almost god-like status. ? Kate Ledecky, Simone Biles, Leon Marchand and Torri Huske fit into this category,? however it is their humility and refusal to accept god-like status that truly speaks to their character.? The Olympics also promotes another quality in its participants that sometimes stands out even more than winning a medal; sportsmanship.

Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto hushed fans in an effort to eliminate any distractions during his opponent, Chinese athlete Zhang Boheng’s, final routine.? Boheng took the silver medal.? In a show of unity table tennis athletes from China, North and South Korea posed for a selfie atop the podium following the mixed doubles medals matches.? And halfway through a quarter finals handball match between Angola and Brazil, Angolan captain Albertina Kassoma suffered a devastating knee injury.? Unable to lift herself from the ground she was carried off the court by Brazil’s Tamires Araujo Frossard, a fellow line player and competitor.? When asked about it later she said, “There was no way I wouldn’t help her.”

These actions serve to illustrate a significant point.? While winning is important, there is sometimes another plane of greatness that an athlete can demonstrate—by the injury they overcome to finish, by the political gesture they make on the medal stand or by the way they treat a competitor. In a world wherein winning at all costs is glorified, these stories of sportsmanship remind us of a deeper, more enduring value—the importance of compassion, integrity and unity.?

We are no different than those athletes.? Each day calls on us to be our best; be it at our job, as part of a family or simply in the pursuit of being a better person.? It’s becomes easy to get caught up in the competition, in winning, and the pursuit of notoriety.? But the true test is found in our character, in how we act when the stakes are high, when the choices are difficult, and when the outcome is for the better good.?

In the end, it is the triumph of one’s values that truly counts; what some might call a victory of character.??True success comes from not only giving our best, but striving to be the best in every facet of our lives.? Let this be the legacy we strive for in everything we do.? We might not win a gold medal, but we will certainly feel like we did.?

Embrace the Challenge.