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Students
No Deposit, No Return
The Olympian views each day of practice, each party unattended, each distraction withstood, or temptation resisted, as a part of the price gladly paid to experience that wonderful feeling when the national anthem is played. The Olympics require a concrete investment of effort prior to the actual competition. You can't cram for the Olympics during the three weeks prior to the Opening Ceremony the way you study for a midterm.
The understanding that the prize must be paid for in advance includes the realization that for the prize to mean anything, it must be earned fairly. To win a race, I must follow the rules and compete honorably against the competition. One of life's greatest lessons is one that should still be taught in the athletic arena: the lesson of character.
As I write this, a trial is underway in Germany to determine an appropriate penalty for the coaches who administered performance-enhancing drugs to members of former East German Olympic teams. It seems that these coaches forced young women to take massive doses of steroids and other drugs, which produced remarkable athletic results at the Olympic level. But the consequences were equally remarkable: unwanted body hair, physical deformities, and the inability to have children.
If winning is all that matters, then cheating becomes an option. I've heard it said that if we're unwilling to lose, we had better be willing to do anything to win. At the time of their victories, the German athletes appeared pleased with their Olympic successes, but their gold medals are tarnished and their internal suspicions and eventual exposure have robbed them of the pleasure of winning fairly.
No one honestly thinks cheating is right, but they want to win so badly that they'll try to justify their actions. Eventually the truth will surface.
--John Naber
John Naber won five swimming medals -- four gold and one silver -- at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
Excerpted from Awaken the Olympian Within: Stories from America's Greatest Olympic Motivators, Edited by John Naber
© 1999 by Griffin Publishing Group
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Awaken the Olympian Within
Stories from America's Greatest Olympic Motivators
Paperback $19.95
© 1999, Griffin Publishing; ISBN: 1882180984
288 pages
For information
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