Who could have watched the Olympics over the past two weeks and not looked within oneself and found oneself wanting? I’ve been awe-struck by the competitors. Impressed beyond belief by their skill, dedication, and how much they must have sacrificed to get there. And scared for them too, because their drive will have caused them harm, and some of the sacrifices they have made may not have been worth it.
“I’m not crying because I’ve come second, I’m crying because it took so much to get here,” said Adam Peaty, Britain’s star breast-stroke swimmer, who missed out on gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke by a heartbreaking two hundredths of a second. Peaty, who has spoken openly about his battles with mental health said, “I’m an older man here now. I can’t have that relentless pursuit every single day without a sacrifice of some sort.
That sacrifice can come in many ways. It can come in time, it can come in energy, it can come in relationships. It comes in every single form.
” Invented by the ancient Greeks in 776 BC when they were held as part of a religious festival at Olympia, the games have no doubt stood the test of time because they show our beautiful, majestic, flawed human condition in all its glory and frailties. Excellence, determination, hunger for victory, loss and triumph. All of human life is here, and all of its complications, as we saw with the awful showdown in the boxing match between Angela Carini and Imane Khelif, who has been banned from .