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High performance
Reflecting on the media coverage of the Olympics over the first three-quarters of the competition, all we can say is we’re glad we’re in the newspaper business. If we make a mistake, chances are a lot of our readers won’t even notice. Or maybe they’ll chalk it up to a typo. At worst, we print a correction and move on.
But if you’re an Olympic athlete, there’s no such thing as “moving on”. It was heartbreaking this past weekend to watch Paula Findlay, the Canadian triathlete, apologize to the entire nation for finishing last in her event. In our view, there was no need for an apology. Another day, she might have medalled. This day, she didn’t have what she needed, and she finished last. Who knows why these things happen?
Simon Whitfield, our most successful Olympic triathlon performer, thought he knew why. He publicly castigated Findlay’s coaches for badly preparing her. But then, a few days later, he went out and did even worse. He crashed early in the bike phase, and couldn’t carry on. At least Findlay finished.
In any other sporting endeavour - any other performance profession, for that matter, such as acting or playing trumpet in the symphony - second chances abound. If you blow it tonight, you’ll ace it tomorrow, and your audience only cares about your latest effort. Golfer Kyle Stanley is a supreme example. Back in February, he was on the verge of winning his first professional tournament when he totally collapsed over the last few holes and handed the victory to someone else. But the very next week he was in the hunt again, and this time he won going away. The media loved it. The Comeback Kid, they called him. The hero of the moment. He hasn’t come close to winning since.
That’s the thing about sport at the highest level. There’s no such thing as consistency. Tiger will shoot a 63 one day and a 75 the next, in essentially the same conditions on the same course. Or he’ll miss the cut in a run-of-the-mill tournament, then place third against the best players in the world at a “major” the very next week. Why?
The same reason a baseball superstar will hit three homers on Thursday, then strike out five times in a row on Friday. The same reason hitting for a .333 average (in other words, doing your job well only a third of the time) will get you $10 million a year on any team anywhere.
Last week, Canadian had two trampolinists, one male, one female, both of whom were in the upper echelons of their sport going into the Olympics. The male landed wrong at one point and flew off the trampoline. His Games ended in disgrace. The woman performed spectacularly (but well within our expectations) and won gold, our only medal of that colour up till press time. It’s not that he suddenly ceased being a superb athlete; he just had a bad routine at a bad time. Her luck was the opposite.
Some say the best athletes have the knack of turning in their best performances at the most opportune times. Like at the Olympics. Maybe, but we suspect it has all to do with the competition. Everyone in the world, particularly in sports we don’t watch any other time, aims at the Olympics as their time to shine. And at the Olympics, you rarely get a second chance (unless you’re lucky enough to be in a sport with a repechage - just ask our Canadian rowers).
So once every four years, you have one chance, usually over the span of seconds or minutes (Jessica Phoenix’ total Olympic performance time amounted to less than 20 minutes), to show you’re among the world’s elite at what you do. And most of the time, it’s a total crapshoot whether you come through or not.
Hardly the definition of high performance.
July 14, 2011
