Saturday, August 16, 2008
The Excellence of Tyson Gay
Just now I saw Tyson Gay fail to make it through one of the semifinals. WHen asked by the interviewer if it was because he wasn't at 100% due to his injured hamstring, Tyson Gay responded that he was in fact at 100%, and that he took full responsibility for not having run the race he could have and should have run. He said that despite the fact that it is known to everyone that he's not in fact at 100%. With seemingly everyone in this society looking to find any excuse for their shortcomings, it was marvelous to see this young man take responsibility even when he was not in fact responsible for the outcome. Can we please clone him? We need more people like him in this society. We'd be much better off. What a fantastic demonstration of character. To take responsibility that way is the paragon of virtue.
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3 comments:
I agree. It's the hallmark of maturity--the number one difference between a boy and a man, although age isn't always the sole determinant.
I don't know the American sports scence well at all, but my first thought was: "It's a sports norm." In my experience, looking for excuses is frowned upon. I can't count the times I saw interviews with German soccer players or coaches in which the reporter asked whether the failure was due to the mitigating circumstance x, y or z and the player or coach answered that he didn't want to look for excuses, it was that the finishing wasn't good enough, etc., etc...
Perhaps it is more normal in sports (I don't watch a lot of sports, and I flip the TV away from the news when they get to sports), but it needs to be heard more. Looking for excuses has become so common anymore everywhere that you can't even provide an explanation for something without it being called an excuse.
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