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Going For Gold
Aug. 12th, 2024 11:36 amAlthough I used to be a sports psychologist, I'm not usually a massive fan of watching sport. But even I was interested in the Olympics, because New Zealand did spectacularly well. We got our biggest total of gold medals at one Games ever (10), which placed us 11th, with all the countries ahead of us having much bigger populations than us. We even got more gold medals than Canada! Astonishing.
Our men did a great job, with golds in the high jump and the kayak cross and silvers in some of the rowing and the triathlon. But it was the women who really excelled. World champion cyclist Ellesse Andrews took two golds in a single day. Lydia Ko finally took the gold in golf after getting a bronze and then a silver in the previous two Games. Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors grabbed a gold in the rowing. And the women's sevens rugby team cruised to their second gold.
But where we really made out medal-wise was in the women's kayaking, and a lot of that was due to GOAT kayaker Lisa Carrington. Lisa's career total medals is eight golds and one bronze, making her NZ's most successful athlete ever. Her first gold was at the 2012 Games, and in Paris, at the age of 35, she took an amazing three golds and made it look effortless.
So congratulations to all our Olympic athletes, and not just for their medals. Win or lose, they all displayed grace and good sportsmanship, something that was far from universal at these Games.
And before we wrap up the Games completely, I'm sparing a thought for the 90% of Olympic athletes who don't win a medal, and the even larger percentage who don't achieve their dream and win a gold. There's so much emphasis on winning in our culture that we have the ridiculous situation where an athlete who is one of the best in the world can lose out on a gold medal by a fraction of a second and still feel like a failure. The most touching moment of the Games for me was the interview on the BBC World Service where the BBC guy was interviewing a British athlete who'd missed out on the gold. The athlete was struggling to hold back his tears, and said "I feel like I've let everyone down". The interview dropped his professional mask and instantly responded to the humanity of the situation, saying "Take a deep breath, son. You haven't let anyone down. You haven't let anyone down". As a sports psychologist, I was always interested in the dark side of sports: what happens to athletes who don't win, or who are forced into retirement by age or injury when their sport is their whole life? It's really sad that so few are successful and even if they are their success doesn't last, yet we have no models for how to cope for this incredibly common situation.
Our men did a great job, with golds in the high jump and the kayak cross and silvers in some of the rowing and the triathlon. But it was the women who really excelled. World champion cyclist Ellesse Andrews took two golds in a single day. Lydia Ko finally took the gold in golf after getting a bronze and then a silver in the previous two Games. Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors grabbed a gold in the rowing. And the women's sevens rugby team cruised to their second gold.
But where we really made out medal-wise was in the women's kayaking, and a lot of that was due to GOAT kayaker Lisa Carrington. Lisa's career total medals is eight golds and one bronze, making her NZ's most successful athlete ever. Her first gold was at the 2012 Games, and in Paris, at the age of 35, she took an amazing three golds and made it look effortless.
So congratulations to all our Olympic athletes, and not just for their medals. Win or lose, they all displayed grace and good sportsmanship, something that was far from universal at these Games.
And before we wrap up the Games completely, I'm sparing a thought for the 90% of Olympic athletes who don't win a medal, and the even larger percentage who don't achieve their dream and win a gold. There's so much emphasis on winning in our culture that we have the ridiculous situation where an athlete who is one of the best in the world can lose out on a gold medal by a fraction of a second and still feel like a failure. The most touching moment of the Games for me was the interview on the BBC World Service where the BBC guy was interviewing a British athlete who'd missed out on the gold. The athlete was struggling to hold back his tears, and said "I feel like I've let everyone down". The interview dropped his professional mask and instantly responded to the humanity of the situation, saying "Take a deep breath, son. You haven't let anyone down. You haven't let anyone down". As a sports psychologist, I was always interested in the dark side of sports: what happens to athletes who don't win, or who are forced into retirement by age or injury when their sport is their whole life? It's really sad that so few are successful and even if they are their success doesn't last, yet we have no models for how to cope for this incredibly common situation.
