THE 2020 Olympics have just ended. We have seen the best of humanity triumph over the adversity of a worldwide pandemic. Just like us, the athletes, coaches and nations encountered hardship, suffered losses that they overcame just to be able to participate in Tokyo.
As we look back at these past few weeks in Malaysia, I can’t help but feel that the politicians we have need a playbook for our future as a nation. So here are some principles they should learn:
1. Unite not Divide the Nation
Belgium had a constitutional crisis in 2014, about the same time as the World Cup in Brazil. The country of 11 million could not form a government. https://www.firstpost.com/sports/unity-diversity-belgiums-exit-world-cup-2014-affects-country-1605193.html However, they overcame this diversity by uniting behind a team.
This Olympics, we saw the nation represented by athletes born in Somalia, Morocco and other nations. They may have arrived as refugees and immigrants but have made Belgium their home and given their best for their adopted nation alongside those born there.
2. Play by the Rules
Among the sports, you’ve seen the occasions where runners in the 100 metres, which is the Blue-Ribbon event for the Olympics, get disqualified for false starts.
It was sad to watch these athletes, who had trained and slogged for years, just twitch right before the start pistol and got disqualified. You could see the abject dejection on their faces clearly. But they knew, once shown the dreaded red card, they had to leave.
The runners obeyed the rules and knew that for the race to continue, they had to leave. They respected their opponents and left honourably.
3. Hard work and no short cuts
Every single athlete who won a medal and even those who didn’t, struggled to get where they are. They had worked hard, trained harder, came back from injuries and then represented their respective nations in front of the watching world. Every sinew of their being was focused on making their country proud.
Each of them gave it their everything on the playing field. Even in failure one could clearly see effort.
4. No man is an island
We saw that great episode between Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi who decided to share the gold medal. https://www.thevibes.com/articles/sports/36690/barshim-tamberi-in-olympic-dreamland-after-injury-nightmares. Their unselfishness will long be remembered in sporting history.
Both underwent severe injury spells that almost ended their careers, but persevered on to glory.
5. Leave a legacy of hope and promise for others
There are so many to choose from but I’m going with two of my most outstanding ones - our diving sensation Nur Dhabitah https://www.thevibes.com/articles/sports/36787/nur-dhabitah-hopes-more-girls-will-now-take-up-diving and refugee athlete Yusra Mardini https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/news/ioc-refugee-yusra-mardini-olympic-team-swimming-100-butterfly-tokyo-2020
Although both didn’t win a medal, they won people's hearts and minds with their attitude, sportsmanship and effort. Nur Dhabitah smiled into our hearts and wished more young girls would emulate her.
Yusra came to the attention as a swimmer who helped pull the refugee boat she was on to safety years ago. Tremendous hurdles were in her path and just competing on a world class stage as a refugee has realised her dreams.
Contrast this with the Russian Olympic Committee, a team from banned Russia. Everywhere the athletes went and competed, everyone knew they were not in Tokyo on merit.
My wish is for our politicians to look at these last two examples and ask themselves this question, “Who would I rather be remembered as?”.
I hope to God it's an answer we Malaysians can be proud of. - The Vibes August 9, 2021
