dpmrunner wrote:
closet case wrote:No one would have thought less of her? Do you recall all the flack she took from the British after Athens?So true! But sad to say, she'll get flack no matter what, with this thread being just one example. The world expects its athletes to be superhuman. If, at any given moment, they show vulnerability, they get flamed.
When Phelps' medley team won the relay gold, I was relieved--this man has experienced a great deal of pressure, some of it self-imposed, it's true, and has accomplished an amazing amount. But if he hadn't won gold, the second guessing would dominate, not all his triumphs. And then people would have pointed fingers at one teammate or another who didn't deliver.
An article in the Phila. Inquirer says that the women's gymnastics team "slipped to" silver, rather than "won" silver.
And back to PR, she limps to the finish in pain, possibly jeopardizing her recovery from the injury that almost kept her out of the Olympics, because she didn't want the label "quitter." But she will be labeled no matter what.
I suppose it all comes down to having some inner sense of commitment to oneself--in a healthy way... so as to develop an inner shield against being annihilated by the critics.
Good post
Ah, the critics. It's hard to put into words how much I really, really dislike these people...the blamers, the finger pointers and the fault finders. They don't care if you had to overcome cancer, whether you ran with a broken leg, or if your best friend just died. They just hide in the shadows waiting to for someone to fall so they can kick them while they are down. They just plain don't give a ****. They are the lowest, coldest most digusting human beings on the planet and the biggest losers of all.