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First world problems! I competed in two different Olympic sports and although I attended the Junior Olympics for one of the (big whoop, right?) and didn't plac

First world problems! I competed in two different Olympic sports and although I attended the Junior Olympics for one of the (big whoop, right?) and didn't place, I never once thought I was a loser--you just look at the competition and how a mere few seconds determines the winner versus going home with nothing. People have peak days, others are just a tiny bit off. What I realized is that greatness has a component of luck to it. I figured I was lucky to be able to compete there at all. There are letdowns for sure, but you're not competing with others as much as you are competing with yourself. ETA--Having attended the Olympic Training Center around age 16, I can't tell you how depressing it was to see 20 and 30-something athletes living in the dorms there, striving for their moment of glory while everyone else was out having fun, working, starting families, etc. I look back at that as the moment I made a very conscious choice to focus on having a career. Olympic sports aren't pro sports, you aren't getting endorsement deals unless you're in one of the "popular" sports like swimming or downhill skiing.

ams6110 9y ago
I thought this post contributed to the discussion here so I vouched for it. Yes one of the things you hopefully learn in sports is not just teamwork but that you are ultimately trying to be a little bit better every practice, every competition. And that is all on you, and success is measured individually. It's one of the things I like about sports like running, you can always compare your performance with your previous time. Setting a new PR ("personal record") is what you are mostly striving for.
astura 9y ago
>I can't tell you how depressing it was to see 20 and 30-something athletes living in the dorms there, striving for their moment of glory while everyone else was out having fun, working, starting families, etc. It might be depressing to YOU because it's not what you'd like for yourself but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's depressing for the people living it, after all, it's what they have chosen. Not everyone is exactly like you and wants the same things in life. I see people living their lives in all sorts of ways I would consider absolutely awful and depressing, but I don't project my values and goals on them.
lsc 9y ago
>ETA--Having attended the Olympic Training Center around age 16, I can't tell you how depressing it was to see 20 and 30-something athletes living in the dorms there, striving for their moment of glory while everyone else was out having fun, working, starting families, etc. I look back at that as the moment I made a very conscious choice to focus on having a career. Olympic sports aren't pro sports, you aren't getting endorsement deals unless you're in one of the "popular" sports like swimming or downhill skiing. I dunno. the unpopular sports always seemed more interesting to me. I'm imagining a bunch of 'sports nerds' hanging out together, People who aren't best in the world, but within the top 100 within their sport. All hanging out with other people who are just as obsessed with the same obscure sport, doing their thing without the constant public intrusion that would come with being that good at, say, baseball. It sounds kinda neat, really. Although a lot of that, I imagine, is just that it would be pretty great to be in that kind of physical condition. I mean, I imagine everyone there was in the top ten thousand humans if you ordered us by physical fitness. You probably have a much better idea of what it is to be that fit than I do, and maybe it's not actually all that great... but from where I stand here in my late '30s, teetering on the edge of obesity, it sounds pretty great.

ams6110 9y ago

I thought this post contributed to the discussion here so I vouched for it. Yes one of the things you hopefully learn in sports is not just teamwork but that you are ultimately trying to be a little bit better every practice, every competition. And that is all on you, and success is measured individually. It's one of the things I like about sports like running, you can always compare your performance with your previous time. Setting a new PR ("personal record") is what you are mostly striving for.

astura 9y ago

>I can't tell you how depressing it was to see 20 and 30-something athletes living in the dorms there, striving for their moment of glory while everyone else was out having fun, working, starting families, etc. It might be depressing to YOU because it's not what you'd like for yourself but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's depressing for the people living it, after all, it's what they have chosen. Not everyone is exactly like you and wants the same things in life. I see people living their lives in all sorts of ways I would consider absolutely awful and depressing, but I don't project my values and goals on them.

lsc 9y ago

>ETA--Having attended the Olympic Training Center around age 16, I can't tell you how depressing it was to see 20 and 30-something athletes living in the dorms there, striving for their moment of glory while everyone else was out having fun, working, starting families, etc. I look back at that as the moment I made a very conscious choice to focus on having a career. Olympic sports aren't pro sports, you aren't getting endorsement deals unless you're in one of the "popular" sports like swimming or downhill skiing. I dunno. the unpopular sports always seemed more interesting to me. I'm imagining a bunch of 'sports nerds' hanging out together, People who aren't best in the world, but within the top 100 within their sport. All hanging out with other people who are just as obsessed with the same obscure sport, doing their thing without the constant public intrusion that would come with being that good at, say, baseball. It sounds kinda neat, really. Although a lot of that, I imagine, is just that it would be pretty great to be in that kind of physical condition. I mean, I imagine everyone there was in the top ten thousand humans if you ordered us by physical fitness. You probably have a much better idea of what it is to be that fit than I do, and maybe it's not actually all that great... but from where I stand here in my late '30s, teetering on the edge of obesity, it sounds pretty great.