www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

OLYMPICS / Columns

Only Human
By Dylan Quinnell
chinadaily.com.cn
Updated: 2008-08-19 12:44

 

The Beijing Olympics saw one of its more stunning moments on Monday, but not in the same vein as Phelps' eighth gold medals. When Liu Xiang - China's hurdle champion - failed to even make the first hurdle in his qualifying race, he left a nation, and myself, stunned.

When Liu pulled up limping in his second warm-up run, a murmur began to spread through our office, where everyone was clustered around the TV. The glances said it all. Was China's favourite sportsman, along with basketball player Yao Ming, injured, no way. However, after the starting gun went, and went again to signal a false start, and Liu pulled up limping again we all knew it was over.

Liu Xiang walks away after failing to start his 110 metres hurdles first-round heat of the athletics competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 18, 2008. [Agencies]

He stripped of his number, and without saying or doing anything, walked straight past his starting block and out of the stadium. Outside no sound, and inside ushers stumbled to get out of the way, confused and perhaps just beginning to realise what had happened. And then to get a massive 48.6% of people saying in our poll that they think the track and field will be harmed by his pulling out, it is only one race. As a sportsman I have some idea of what it must have been like for Liu, and the word 'devastating' is the first one that comes to my mind. With a large proportion of Liu's fellow countrymen cheering him on, I half expected him to try run the race anyway, only to make his injury worse, or fall at the first hurdle. There is nothing anyone could have done, not because he is anything less than a great hurdler but, because he is only human.

Humans get injured, they make mistakes and they lose. Why then is it so stunning, so devastating for those of us watching? Yes it is sad, but this is sport.

Chinese shooter Du Li did not fail on the first day of the Olympics, nor did Yang Wei in 2004 when he didn't win the Men's Gymnastics all-round gold, they simply lost. And yes there is a significant difference. In sport you win some, you lose some, that's just the way it goes. To expect anything more is unfair.

Phelps' eight golds were due in part to his teammates, especially Jason Lezak who swam the race of his life on the last leg of the 200m freestyle relay to snatch the USA a come-from-behind victory. Something Phelps had no control over, even Lezak later admitted that he nearly gave up.

I fear that if too much pressure and expectations are piled on athletes, when things go wrong, as they often will, it could be too much to handle. You only have to look at Du crying to understand that.

Please don't think I am only referring to China as this is an international issue. During the women's, or should we say girls, gymnastics team final both a US and Chinese gymnast fell while doing their horizontal bar routines. When the US gymnast, Alicia Sacramone then fell again during her floor routine she understanably burst into tears. Was she crying because she had made a mistake in what may well be her one chance to get gold, or because a nation would blame her for losing the medal, even if only in their heads.

However, as she left the floor there was no coach waiting to help her down and give her the customary hug, and when she crumpled in a crying ball on the stairs no one patted on the back and told her yeah it was terrible, but it happens.

Sport is sport, and as a friend of mine likes to tell me, chance reigns supreme. There is a line I like from a movie, one day your ball hits the net and falls back onto your side, the next day it hits the net and lands on his, it is all chance.

Yes chance can be minimised through intense training, but it is still there, we are still human. One day your routine will be perfect, the next you will get distracted and fall. One day the sun shines and you win, the next it rains and you slip. One day you run the race of your life and easily win, the next you run the race of your life but your rival runs faster.

The New Zealand men's hockey team have played one of their best tournaments beating South Korea and nearly taking down Spain as well, they were looking good, until they drew with a Chinese team that hasn't yet won a game. The Chinese possibly played their best game of the tournament, and well done to them.

In the end sport is only a game, and the athletes are only human.

Comments of the article(total ) Print This Article E-mail
主站蜘蛛池模板: 久久频这里精品99香蕉久网址 | 日本欧美一区二区三区不卡视频 | 国产一级毛片一区二区三区 | 特黄a大片免费视频 | 在线成人97观看 | 国产精品久久久久久久久久免费 | 精品国产乱码久久久久久一区二区 | 国产三级精品久久三级国专区 | 一级毛片免费不卡夜夜欢 | 男女配种猛烈免费视频 | 国产视频自拍偷拍 | 99久久免费观看 | 国产精品99久久久久久宅男 | 久久久久久久久网站 | 日本黄色官网 | 国产a国产片国产 | 亚洲高清国产品国语在线观看 | 97在线观看免费版 | 精品国产91久久久久久久a | 视色4setv.com | 日本b站一卡二卡乱码入口 日本s色大片在线观看 | 亚洲精品成人网 | 精品久久久久久综合网 | 在线播放精品一区二区啪视频 | 另类在线视频 | 久久老司机波多野结衣 | 999成人国产精品 | 亚洲人成网国产最新在线 | 国产精品1页| 日韩毛片高清在线看 | 日韩精品福利视频一区二区三区 | 亚洲久久久 | 久久这里一区二区精品 | 日韩欧美印度一级毛片 | 国产性做久久久久久 | 国产成人精品一区二区秒拍 | 久久久www成人免费精品 | 中国一级特黄大片毛片 | 国产成人精品免费视频大全办公室 | 中文字幕综合 | 国产美女高清一级a毛片 |