What a week it has been in the world of Olympic Sports. There have been so many highlights but also a few lows. The highlights for me include the amazing performance of Bryony Page. The oldest contestant in the trampolining competition, Silver at Rio, Bronze at Tokyo and possible her final performance at Olympic level in Paris. As the penultimate jumper she knew had to pull it out of the bag to be in a chance for the medal. I watched her performance and it was amazing, the height and the accuracy was phenomenal. Her score came up and she was first, but there was one more jumper to go. With everyone’s eye on this final performance the Chinese contestant seemed to take for ever to start her routine. Eventually she got going but it didn’t seem quite right. After the second jump she had a tumble off the trampoline, ending her challenge. Bryony Page had won GOLD. However, I felt so sad for the final contestant not being able to perform to her best abilities after all these years of training must be soul destroying and I imagine will take a lot to get over. Saying that I am also really pleased for Bryony to achieve the ultimate goal.
My second highlight was the outstanding performance of Tom Pidcock in the Mountain Bike Cross-country race. It is an 8 lap race and he was leading from the beginning. Then at lap 3 he had a puncture and dropped to 9th position and all seemed lost. However, he did not give up he got back up on a fixed bike and continued the race. By lap 5 he was up to 4th position and then going into the final lap he was up with the French rider at the front. Through grit and determination he crossed the line ahead of his French counterpart and took the gold. It was an outstanding performance and was a testament to not giving up until the end. This reminds me of my recent tumble at the staff 100m relay were I fell during the first leg, despite injury (which still hurts) I got up and continued my leg and our team came in second staff team behind the PE department. Though embracing for me, I was not going to just give up. That is the Olympic spirit.
On a low note I have found it very disturbing to see memes and comments about some of the women Olympiads performing this year and NOTHING to do with their Olympic sport. The first of these is the stupid comments about Simone Biles hair. Who gives a f**k what her hair looks like? She is the most amazing Olympic gymnast and athlete competing for her country and for herself and the only thing that people can say is about her hair. What???? I noticed more and more female athletes wearing full make-up and perfect hair, what is this about? Since when has it been a thing for these amazing athletes to feel that they have also go to look the part to perform at this level. It is rubbish and not the message we want to be giving our children, girls AND boys. If it is something they want to do for them, that is fine, if it is something that they feel they have to do then it is wrong. They should be able to perform without any other expectations except to do their best in their sport.
Even worse than this I was shown a meme of the girls volleyball team competing with a rather crude message which basically referred to a man wanking whilst watching this sport. For god sake, even at this level why do women have to be objectified and sexualised in this way. Yes they are wearing sports wear that provide them the best performance when playing volleyball at an Olympic level and are competing for their country in a sport they love. NO they are not in a porn movie for the gratification of others to be ogled and reduced to tits and bums bouncing around in the sand. It is pathetic and needs to be called out. Imagine that you saw that post on facebook and giggled and sniggered, now image that the girls competing are your daughters who have worked incredible hard to get to this amazing event and you realise that there are men out there wanking over their picture. Not so funny now is it.
I could go one with other examples of mis-information, fat shaming, sexualisation etc that has happened in just 1 week but I want to finish on a positive.
I love watching the Olympics, the sense of pride I have for every athlete that competes at this level, whatever the medal they receive or whatever the country they represent (though of course I scream louder for GB athletes) is immense. As a budding runner I know the level of commitment you need to be able to compete even at the ground root level let alone at Olympic level and this is what we should be celebrating. Not what people are wearing or what they look like but on being there in the first place.
Thanks
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