Notable Olympic mettle contenders honored

One of my favorite Olympic success stories is about a big loser. During the Albertville Winter Olympics in 1992, I was inspired by a Moroccan cross-country skier. Morocco has never been known as a big Nordic skiing powerhouse. Nonetheless, the country had an Olympic contender. He was faced with a Norwegian competitor who was nicknamed The Terminator. Norway, on the other hand, is very much a Nordic skiing powerhouse.

At the start of the race, the Moroccan simply stepped aside and allowed the fiercer medal contenders to pass him by. He then skied his best. Although he finished the course hours after The Terminator, he won “his race.” Perhaps he didn’t belong in competition at the Olympic level, but I have to admire his tenacity and gumption.

The front pages of Olympic reporting last week were full of figure skater Michelle Kwan’s agonizing story. The five-time world champion pulled out of gold medal contention at the Torino Olympics over the weekend, due to injury – a move that made room for younger contenders on the U.S. team. Perhaps we can say that Michelle won by not competing, by realizing that to go on would be about personal stoicism rather than team aspiration. It must have been an a torturous couple of days leading to her decision, and she showed great grace with the outcome.

Did you also notice the back page story about Anne Abernathy, the 50-something woman competing in the luge in her sixth winter Olympics? Known as “Grandma Luge,” she hails from the Virgin Islands – again, not a real sledding Mecca. (see www.grandmaluge.com) But she shows tenacity and spirit in her pursuit of a dream.

The Moroccan skier and grandma luger from the tropics are good object-lessons for kids – as important a role model as The Terminator or Bode Miller and other medal contenders or winners – because they exemplify an accurate sense of their abilities, self-denial, and perseverance in the face of adversity. These are the great qualities of Olympians regardless of their medals.

You can win an Olympic medal by crossing the finish line first, by being judged best, or by being overly hyped, media attention being an embedded part of the contest in most sports these days. (Cf. The recent “that’s Bode being Bode” media focus). But two things stand out that might relate to a positive message for kids. You need to compete at the right level, both in order to win and in order for the challenge to be fair. And you need to ski, or luge, or skate “your own race.” In this regard, you win just by competing.

To push the point a little further, there’s a classroom lesson herein. A quality education gradually raises a child’s expectation for what they can accomplish, provides them the feedback that develops self-judgment, and leads to each child’s durable sense that he or she is a powerful learner.

Teachers want to inspire lofty personal goals without creating unfair competition with a personally inappropriate lofty ideal. We have to be sure that kids are learning how to “play their own game,” and that the expectations they create for themselves

are ones they value and can achieve.

As to the media hype: maybe some day our culture will mature and realize that there is such a thing as bad publicity, especially when kids are watching.

Todd R. Nelson is principal of the

Adams School in Castine.