Olympic Rejection

In today''s Independent was an article that initially was not surprising in today's nanny state but on further reflection given the people involved became rather confusing.

The article was referring to athletes who have either already missed out on 2012 selection or are likely to do so in the next few weeks and their tirades against their sports governing bodies who are failing to give them support or counselling to help them through these tragic times,those recounting their stories from the last Olympics talked of turning to anti depressants to help them through such terrible rejection.

Now the initial reaction was that these are people in the 18-25 age group who are the first brought up in the “Non Competitive” era whereby everybody wins there are no losers and kiddies get a prize for finishing last so they don’t get looked down upon by the winners. Yes I am starting to sound cynical because these are not 7 year old 's at school sports day we are talking about these are International sportsmen and women who are competing in and around the highest level so should be used to the highs of winning and the lows of losing,they will have known for some time that unless their name was Philips Odowu,Jessica Ennis or Dai Green that there was a possibility that they might not make it so why the bleating now.

Is it a case that the early indoctrination of “No losers” has stayed with them over the years and they feel they have a right to compete in their home Olympics,well that’s life there are winners and losers so instead of moaning about counselling maybe they should think more about Kipling

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:

you’ll be a Man, my son! “