WHEN WE ARE?FACED with news of and comments on youth – at home and abroad – centring on their deviant behaviour, the many stories of personal dedication to wholesome activity coming out of the Olympics do add some balance to the picture.
The Olympic ideals properly understood are important ones for our young people to follow, if they are to make good of the opportunities open to them for healthy living and honest lives, and to enhance their standing as good citizens within their communities and in the larger world.
The time-honoured Olympic principles of fair play, sportsmanship and the like that are ideals, yes; but the reality is that these ideals when practised in one’s personal life can provide clear landmarks of personal behaviour in one’s everyday existence.
Fair play implies honesty and a commitment to stick to the rules. It eschews dishonesty and cheating, and in the modern context that includes an abhorrence of any practice that seeks to place unfairly one athlete in a position of advantage over another. Such example is the competitor who seeks the edge over fellow athletes, who are not cheats, with the aid of illegal substances for enhancing physical performance.
Such dishonest and unsportsmanlike conduct goes against the grain of personal endeavour that includes hard work, long hours of practice and self-belief, rewarded in original times with nothing more than high personal fulfilment, national honour and a garland.
Nowadays, the rewards for spectacular Olympic performance can make an athlete for life, such is the commercial exploitation of the intellectual property of image rights and personal endorsements that follows victory.
Glory
And yet there is nothing that can replace total admiration for the perseverance and sacrifice that almost always accompanies the glory of Olympic victory. Patience and sometimes lonely hours of preparation, practising routines again and again until near perfection often bring success, such as the achievements of a Usain Bolt or an Obadele Thompson.
Hear the story of Gabby Douglas the 16-year-old African American gymnast who last week won the individual gold medal in London.
Imagine at 14, this precocious young talent required that she be sent thousands of miles away from home to be expertly coached in her craft. That she was supported by loving parents is of course important, but that it was her choice ought to be a signal lesson to many of our young.
If there are shades of the story of our National Hero Sir Garfield Sobers in Gabby’s journey to Olympic gold, it is only a reflection of a determination in extraordinarily talented youngsters make worthwhile choices in defiance of Oscar Wilde’s somewhat curt remark that “youth is wasted on the young”.
It is these examples of personal hard work, both abroad and at home, that we commend to our young people searching for guideposts in their lives and for role models in whose footsteps to follow.
All our youth need not strive to be Olympic champions, but can yet follow the good personal examples of those who aspire to succeed, avoiding the easy but dangerously carved short cuts that often bring disgrace and loss of respect.
A decade ago, Prime Minister Owen Arthur in a public speech urged all young Barbadians to “go for the gold”. He was using the imagery of the Olympic traditions to inspire the young of this country to aim for excellence.
But there is more than the goal; there are the Olympic ideals.
