Olympic Times and Trials —What We Learn and Can Teach From Them

It’s an exciting first weekend we just experienced, with the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France. The week of the Olympics landed in the midst of a very busy series of news cycles that document world events and daily news. Good and bad news abounds, everywhere you look it seems. You just have to pick and choose what you want to let into your day. Yet, it’s important to be aware of the world around us, because the earliest displays of the lessons we teach our children revolve around how we respond to the ups and downs of life.

Olympic athletes spend their lifetimes, mostly, dedicated to a singular purpose of training their bodies, minds, and spirits for excellence. From early inspirations, to learning from coaches, to finding personal trainers, and giving hours of sacrificial practice in lieu of taking it easy, no one person wins an Olympic medal alone. It truly does a team to train that future competitor. And, on the days of competition, everyone who has had a hand in the process of that person’s development can take a deep breath and smile, knowing that they played a role in getting them there.

Children are constantly monitoring adults to watch their examples of how to celebrate good news as well as to absorb bad news. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that, especially if you’re new to having a new member of your household. I was watching some of the Olympic coverage this weekend and there was a commercial that showed multiple children racing around a track at school, clearly competing with one other.

Segment after segment showed one child falling down, on a running track, on a soccer field, or a baseball field, and another child, a competitor, nearby stopping or turning back to go back and help the other child up, putting them back on their feet and giving them an encouraging pat on the shoulder. Not one word was said during the 30-second commercial until the end when the announcer said something to the effect that “Set the example for them to follow.” Message received and beautifully delivered.

The three Olympic Values that are set forth are excellence, respect, and friendship. Whether in international sporting competition or in local business, these are three excellent values to hold to if you want to build and sustain positive relationships to endure for the length of time that you have your business. It’s certainly what we strive for, and our children are listening and watching everywhere we go and what we do and say. That’s a positive reason to be consistent, kind, and caring in everything we do.

It’s not easy, especially when in times where we don’t always agree with one another, in whatever setting we find ourselves in, disagreements may arise, tempers can flare, but just as quickly, we can reassess what a particular friendship means to us before we allow a disagreement to damage or even destroy it. Name calling is no more suitable for adults than for children. Possibly with the exception of one or two particular football games, we can all just agree to disagree with the opposition on who is right and who has failed, one year at a time, and the loser can repeat the mantra, “Wait ‘til next year,” and there’s always a next year. Always.

However, it does no good to trash-talk the opponents just for the sake of popular rivalries, because children don’t yet distinguish good-natured ribbing from attacking or cutting down the competition. Still, old habits die hard…particularly during football season. It’s bound to happen once you start collecting clothing in either maroon or orange…and goes from there.

Good examples of the USA Men’s and Women’s Swimming team were all around to watch this weekend. As one swimmer prevailed in the contest and the top three came in, you could not distinguish the joy between all of the USA teammates, as they sincerely celebrated one another as though each had prevailed as the winner, because as fellow members of Team USA, they were all indeed genuine winners.

Just making the trip to the Paris games means elite standing among world athletes. In the heat of competition, it’s easy to forget the statistical probability of an athlete coming from a small town in a small state, never before having seen their name in print beyond the local or state papers. And, with each special award and honor earned, every night and every day during the Olympic coverage, names are repeated, video footage of amazing victories, some separated by hundreds of seconds is shown, and reshown, and new names will be forever remembered from this week forward.

Learning how to lose is just as important as learning how to win. Most successes in life come after multiple failures. We learn most from our failures if we are wise and pay attention. If we keep in mind that every day we are modeling behavior to other eyes, adult, and child alike, then perhaps more people will mirror our behavior, if they like what we see. Treating people as you wish to be treated is something we learned in kindergarten, but it’s still true. No one person is as smart as “all of us,” and we can always benefit from the wisdom and experience of those who went before us, paving the way.

Congratulations to all our Olympians competing in Paris these next weeks and be prepared to shed a tear or two when the national anthem is played, and we receive our share of Gold Medals (if this first weekend is any indication). It’s a wonderful time to be an American and to cheer for Team USA as we Go for the Gold!

Cody D. Jones ’02

Owner & Community Member