Being young and inexperienced is tough, you know there is a right moment to wait for, and you also know that does you no good if you're not ready to strike at the right time, you haven't always found a balance or a rhythm yet, and you get thrown out of rhythm before you find your rhythm, it can happen to a vet with years of experience and too many medals to count. Really if you're happy with a silver or bronze, or even just showing up, your country is with you no matter what, even if you don't look, act, or think like they do, and they're not going to stop believing in you if you don't stop believing in you. Really it is only you that ends up letting yourself down or being disappointed at the end of the games. A little bit of extra pain to endure and fight through for a gold might not be worse than a few years of frustration for you, but it's really nobody else's split second decision to make.
There's really just one thing that would defeat the purpose of going to the Olympics in the first place for the men's track, and that is give up because of a few stumbles. Whether you win or lose, you might as well fight through to the end, especially if you're young and you're going to be doing it a lot in the future. Starting a habit of giving up isn't going to get things done for you, and showing yourself or your teammates some tough love isn't the same thing as hating yourself/yourselves if you don't win a gold medal.
by The Original Agahnim August 6, 2021
Get the Men's trackmug.