Sport stars who sulk at silver shame us all
Even if you are not a sports fan, the Olympics is a wondrous spectacle, brimming with all the drama, joy and pain of life itself. The sacrifice and dedication it has taken for every single athlete to compete for their country? Incredible. Just being in Tokyo makes them all winners.
Like many, I feel pride and awe at the achievements of our sporting talents. But I must confess to a new and thorny emotion blooming within the bouquet of good wishes and congratulations. Shame.
I am ashamed at the way some of our sports stars — at the Olympics and elsewhere — behave when they don’t come top.
Instead of being gracious in defeat and accepting their silver or bronze awards with dignity, they act like surly barbarians.
Boxer Ben Whittaker (inset) has been criticised for his reaction to missing out on gold this week, and no wonder. The 24-year-old lightheavyweight from West Bromwich sulked, seemed unimpressed with his silver medal and did not congratulate his winning rival, Cuban Arlen Lopez. He later apologised, saying he was just ‘disappointed’.
It was hard not to burn with embarrassment on his behalf.
THe same feelings applied when the england football team lost the euros final to Italy last month. Most of the players were curt to the point of rudeness with officials handing out the gongs, then stuffed their runners-up medals into their pockets as if they were some humiliating indignity to be hidden from public view.
‘I didn’t win silver, I lost gold,’ is their sulky belief.
Until that moment at Wembley Stadium, most of us didn’t realise that this silver disservice was even a thing, and that it has been gathering strength for some time.
Two years ago, the england rugby squad reacted in a similar way after their World Cup defeat to South Africa.
Some players even discarded their silver ‘loser medals’ after the ceremony; such a lack of civility does no one any favours.
One would have hoped that coaches — or even parents! — had instilled at an early age the value of sportsmanship in their charges. With an emphasis on the fact that these qualities are more important in defeat than in victory. Clearly not.
Perhaps all these men — and they are mostly men — think that being facetious about coming second makes them look like big guys: guys who think you either go big (medal-wise) or you go home, and that nothing matters except winning. Yet this attitude makes them look more like truculent losers than admirable victors.
Contrast their brutish behaviour with that of Katarina JohnsonThompson, the UK’s world champion heptathlete, whose medal hopes ended with a calf injury during the 200 metres this week. She refused a wheelchair brought on by officials and limped across the finishing line under her own steam.
She explained: ‘I started the year in a wheelchair and I was not willing to end my Olympic campaign the same way.’ Don’t you just love her spirit? A burning desire to be a winner is what champions are made of, yes, but it must not come at the cost of decency. Surely it is important for competitors to show they are grateful for the opportunity to participate — an honour in itself.
Look at tennis star Roger Federer. He has won 20 grand slam finals — but he has also lost 11. note that even in defeat he always pays gracious tribute to his winning opponent, no matter how dreadful he feels about losing.
This is in marked contrast to his great rival novak Djokovic who destroyed two tennis rackets during his Olympic bronze medal match against Pablo Carreno Busta on Saturday. What a big baby.
It’s tough at the top and I don’t underestimate the pressures on athletes. However, in sport and in life, do yourself a favour. Be a Roger, not a novak. Be a Katarina, not a whiner.
And before you toss your silver medal in the bin, spare a thought for all those athletes from countries such as China, Russia and Belarus, many of whom have difficulties their compatriots in the spoilt and selfish West simply cannot imagine. no mental health issues or loser tantrums for them, thank you very much.
PeRHAPS Whittaker and others like him are simply a product of the age; young men and women drunk on their own legend, oblivious to the threat of rivals and encouraged to consider themselves matchless and unique.
They blow their own trumpets across social media and they revel in the praise of friends who mindlessly tell them: ‘You’ve got this.’
Then when defeat comes, they simply don’t know what to do. Perhaps they should listen to Fred Sirieix, the French maître d’ who is best known for appearing on Channel 4’s First Dates show.
His daughter, Andrea SpendoliniSirieix, made it to the final of the 10m platform diving competition, but did not win a medal. At the age of 16, she is the youngest diver on Team GB and has a brilliant future ahead of her.
Yesterday, proud Fred tweeted a quote from Pierre de Coubertin, the man known as the father of the modern Olympic games: ‘The important thing in life is not the triumph but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.’