In regards to the reactions we have seen from a few Olympians on tellie lattely when they didn't win, I want to share my story (briefly)
I was not an Olympian and wouldn't put myself in that league but I think my experiences give me an insight into what is going on here...
In 1999-2000 I trained methodically, brutally and with the utmost determination to try and qualify for the
Worlds Strongest Man contest. I sacrificed family time and holidays and had a steely one eye view of achieving my goal - it took every fiber of my being to cope both mentally and physically with the demanding build up.
The qualifying competition the
Trans Tasman Strongman Challenge was held over 3 days at The Royal Easter Show in Sydney and included athletes from both Australia and New Zealand. With 4 brutally challenging events each day it was a tough contest to say the least. In the end the points table saw a single point separating 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, it was that close. I can tell you that I was VERY dissapointed to finish in 3rd place, as only the top two were invited to compete at the Worlds Strongest Man contest for that year.
At the time I was very dejected and disappointed and I probably showed this....so to rub salt in the wound, you can imagine when about 8 weeks later I was informed by the organisers of the contest that the winner (from New Zealand) had subsequently tested positive for anabolic steroids
fuuuu...I didn't even get the opportunity to stand on the silver medal spot on the podium, not to mention missing the holy grail of WSM, sooo once again I was pretty pissed
More than a decade later, I now smile at this story
... all water under the bridge... but at the time I was very disappointed and became rather depressed for a few days, not clinically and many wouldn't have noticed, but I was down
.
The point here is that I have personally experienced really trying to win something through incredibly hard and even crazy
physical and mental effort..and then not winning and yes, it was hard to take.
So perhaps unless you have experienced a similar sort of position maybe you can not really understand the feelings and emotions invloved when your hard work (and I mean really hard work) doesn't quite get you over the mark
Now, like most on here, I enjoy sitting outside in the cold (or heat) looking up at the universe and I can tell you it is much less strenuous, very relaxing....and probably even more rewarding
...although it can make you a bit fat
...thanks for listening
Mike