Olympic significance
Feb. 23rd, 2014 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blatherskiteI've been having a lot of fun watching the winter Olympics the past couple weeks. Even the athletes who don't win are impressive and inspirational. But it's also given me cause to reflect on the meaning of the medals.
Watching some of the events, where the difference between winning a gold and not earning any medal at all is about 0.1 sec, it's hard for me to believe that the medals per se are truly meaningful. The science geek in me points out that most of the differences in timing and points awarded for a performance would not meet the criteria for statistical significance. More importantly, the former jock (not quite "athlete") in me points out that being (say) only the 10th or 20th best at a sport in a world of 7+ billion people is hardly a performance to be ashamed of.
I really hope the athletes who don't win recognize that, and understand that the real importance of what they're doing is "not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game". That's how I always lived my life as a player: I used to piss off my teammates when I played hockey by congratulating opposing players on a brilliant play. I'm really touched to see that most of the Olympic athletes do the same, even when they're pushed off the podium by a tiny margin during the last performance of the event.
Watching some of the events, where the difference between winning a gold and not earning any medal at all is about 0.1 sec, it's hard for me to believe that the medals per se are truly meaningful. The science geek in me points out that most of the differences in timing and points awarded for a performance would not meet the criteria for statistical significance. More importantly, the former jock (not quite "athlete") in me points out that being (say) only the 10th or 20th best at a sport in a world of 7+ billion people is hardly a performance to be ashamed of.
I really hope the athletes who don't win recognize that, and understand that the real importance of what they're doing is "not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game". That's how I always lived my life as a player: I used to piss off my teammates when I played hockey by congratulating opposing players on a brilliant play. I'm really touched to see that most of the Olympic athletes do the same, even when they're pushed off the podium by a tiny margin during the last performance of the event.