Inspiration from world class athletes

Once again, Jamaicans the world over are celebrating with wild abandon.  Our athletes performed superbly at the recently concluded World Track and Field Championships in Daegu South Korea, winning gold, silver and bronze medals in colourful, noisy, exuberant style!  The only world record to be broken at the games came in a made-for-Hollywood movie climax – the last race of the games, the last leg of the 4 x 100m relay smashed by the fastest man in the world – Usain Bolt.  WOW!

 

Over the 10 days of the competition, as our athletes qualified, disqualified, won, lost, cried, laughed, danced, slapped walls, and expressed a gamut of emotions, Jamaicans watched, questioned, passed commentary, cussed, were silent, tuned out, tuned back in.   To put this all in perspective, consider this: track to Jamaicans is as soccer to Brazilians,  football to Americans and hockey to Canadians.  We are PASSIONATE to the extreme!

 

And yet there is always this nagging question – if Jamaicans are SO good in world athletics, why is our country so troubled?  How come we are first world in athletics, but third world economically?   If we are so rich in talent, why are we poor?  Surely, if we are world leaders in one field, we can be world leaders in others?

 

I am not the only one pondering these questions.  There are the inevitable calls to honour the athletes, to come together in unity and build our country, to hold our politicians accountable.   In all of these “calls” I think we miss the point.  Our athletes are great because they INDIVIDUALLY decided on greatness.  Each one of them showed the personal grit, determination, commitment, tenacity and focus to perform at the highest level.  These are not people who wait for others to lead them.  These are young men and women who have been given great talent (as we all have) and have made the most of it, often despite the greatest of odds.  These are young men and women who have overcome poverty, injury, criticism, doubts, abuse and all manner of maladies.  These are young men and women who have said “I don’t care.  I have my dream and nothing and no-one will stop me”.  Yes, they have been helped by some wonderful people, but in the final analysis, the decision to win has been theirs and theirs alone.

 

I believe that the greatest tribute we can pay to our Jamaican athletes is for each of us to go out and be MAGNIFICENT, FEARLESS and BOLD! Let NOTHING stop us – no politician, no crappy education system, no miserable boss, no bad mind co-worker. Just go out and express the magnificence of which we are all capable, and which our athletes remind us of over and over and over again!