While Michael Phelps continues to turn everything he touches into gold and enjoy the most spectacular Olympics ever -- though it's not over yet -- last night's women's team gymnastics event showed the flip side of the spotlight.
Anyone who watched the agony etched on American Alicia Sacamone's face after her bobbles on the balance beam and floor exercise crushed her country's gold-medal dream couldn't help but understand, if only vicariously, the risk each of these athletes is taking. Wheaties boxes and million-dollar endorsement deals are waiting for the winners. But for those who happen to have their worst day in front of hundreds of millions of TV viewers and feel they let an entire country down, the pain is real. And you have to imagine lingering, too.
If you've ever had a kid play a position in a team sport that centres them out -- all you goalie parents know what I'm talking about -- you'll understand this. Except magnify whatever stress you've ever suffered watching your child play by about a million per cent.
Sure it's just sports, but she'll live with this the rest of her life.
That's a tough sentence for a 20-year-old to had to serve.
-- Scott Radley
Comments