Lessons from Life 10 August 2012 - The Human Cost of Olympic Champions

Got to have dinner at the Istana (Presidential Palace of Singapore) tonight probably through my volunteer work with the MCYS Probation Services Branch (PSB). Went along to experience how is it like to be among the dignitaries and the powerful. Guessed it was not cut out for me as I did not gyrate to be around them though the President did come round to shake hands. Nice gesture. One for the life experience! p/s: Met a fellow volunteer from PSB who went alone as well and glad to have met him and he said the feeling is mutual.

"Interesting quote by a rare Chinese athlete criticising the Chinese training method as overly focused on training and resting but nothing else! This compared to her experience while training in Australia!

Hopefully her voice is NOT extinguished or silenced. There is some truth in it. Yet, knowing that the Gold Medal and any other medals of other colours is used as a propaganda instrument, it will be unrealistic to expect the state to change anytime soon!

Lessons for me are:

1. any nation that STILL think that heading the Olympic Games medal list is something to crow about the strength of its nation really needs to get its thinking sorted out and priority straightened! It is just another sporting event. An expensive one to host and purely commercial in nature for the IOC!!;

2. once the mindset is cured, we can then understand the gigantic human cost of training athletes from a tender age till becoming an Olympic Champion may not be worthwhile, especially for many who did not make the cut along the way! What is to become of them? Can they still fit into the society they will return to? A BIG responsibility to shoulder!!;

3. Given the immense wealth the successful ones can command, there are WILLING takers of such risk and they think they are ready to bear the cost of failure. If this is the case, it is fine. It is for the athletes to decide what they want to do with their life. BUT not when they are signed away at the tender age of 3, 4 or 5!!

Let me reiterate my stand - I measure the strength of a nation NOT be the number of medals it can garner in the Olympic Games. I measure it by the behaviors of its leaders and people!