SI.com conducted an interview with Carl Lewis that talks about his opinions on Usain Bolt and his performance in the Olympics. Lewis is very honest and his viewpoints should be noted. Most importantly, and the reason for posting on a high school running blog, is what Lewis says about comparing.
"We get caught up in comparing all the time. I have this discussion with young people. They'll tell me Beyonce is better than so-and-so. Why can't we just say that Beyonce is amazing and so-and-so is amazing? I mean Ella Fitzgerald is amazing. Sarah Vaughan is amazing. Whitney Houston is amazing. Why do you have to say that Beyonce is better? Let's just be happy that we had a chance to celebrate all of them."
This holds true for us distance runners. There's always the talk of who's better. Was Pre better than Kennedy? Derrick better than Fernandez? Why do we need to compare? As Lewis states, why can't we just celebrate each individual and what they have done for the sport?
Friday, September 12, 2008
Carl Lewis Interview/Comparing
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1 comment:
While I agree that individuals need to be accepted as the individual self, rather than being compared to other athletes, it is part of the sporting public to compare athletes all the time. While many sports the focus comes off the individual and focuses on the team v. team aspect, we have a sport that is solely individual focused (outside of the Olympic medal count and perhaps cross country).
I think the real statement needs to be whether we can limit the amount of negative talk on certain athletes and can we show others just how great some of our modern day athletes are to the heros of track's past.
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