RETROSPECTION

Lessons from Rio Olympics ‘16

When the world went crazy for Olympics, Pakistanis showed little excitement for it. For most of the Pakistanis, who only look more concerned about how Pakistani cricket team performs, Olympics hold little charm. Nevertheless, Rio Olympics 2016, being one of the most thrilling events of the year, gave us reasons to follow it.

A lesson on sportsmanship

We sometimes forget the lessons we were made to learn back in our school days that sports have more to do with values of team spirit and hard work rather than just winning medals, trophies, titles and making or breaking records.

The world loved the swimmer Michael Phelps for his mind-blowing performance in Rio Olympics and how he made his country proud by winning five gold medals along with one silver. While, Jamaica danced on the ‘triple-triple’ win of the record smashing runner, Usian Bolt, who finished the competition with adding three Olympic gold medals to his credit.

Not just wins, players also celebrated values in Rio Olympics 2016. It is when the runners Abbey D’Agostino of America and Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand, after colliding on the track, put aside their goal of winning a medal to help each other out in finishing the race. This moment taught us no matter how big our goal is, we as humans should stop and pick others up so that they are not left behind in misery.

We were also inspired by the Dutch Olympic medallist, Adelinde Cornelisse, who chose to protect her ill horse. During the dressage performance, she didn’t feel right about her horse, Parzival, and decided to leave the arena. Later, she shared her feelings about her horse on social media, ‘When I entered I already felt he was giving his utmost and being the fighter he is, he never gives up... But in order to protect him, I gave up...My buddy, my friend, the horse that has given everything for me his whole life does not deserve this.... So I saluted and left the arena...’

There must be several other lessons on sportsmanship that we might have missed but thankfully we didn’t miss out the most important ones.

Vault the barriers

Being the daughter of a drug and alcohol addict and looked after by her grandparents, Simone Biles managed to become one of the best female gymnasts in the world after earning four gold medals and one bronze through her amazing vaults. It’s an amazing feat that she didn’t let her mother’s absence come in her way. She worked hard and became a star.

Dipa Karmakar, another artist gymnast from India, was once told that because she had flat feet and bad posture, it would be impossible for her to become a gymnast. But through extensive training, she was able to perfect her posture and eventually went on to become the first Indian gymnast to participate in Olympics. At Rio Olympics, she gave her best; she even attempted ‘vault of death’, considered a very risky gymnastic move. She couldn’t win a medal, but showed the world that even physical barriers can be overcome with hard work.

Message of hope and persistence

Every now and then, a photo on the plight of refugees goes viral on the internet, begging for world’s attention. Refugees receive tones of sympathies but little is done for their rehabilitation.

This Olympics, refugees’ team showed up at the Olympics with a message of ‘hope and persistence’. A team with ten athletes could not bag any medal but they were able to touch the hearts of the people. Yusra Mardini (swimmer), Rami Anis (swimmer), Yolande Mabik (judo) are few Olympians who fled their homelands but didn’t stop chasing their dreams. Their presence in the Olympics was a ray of hope for all the refugees around the world. The team was successful in conveying their message: no matter how hard the situations are, we should never give up.