"Twenty years ago, in another heated battle between teammates, Valeri Liukin, competing for Russia, lost the 1988 men's all-around Olympic title in Seoul to Vladimir Artyomov. 'She fixed my mistake,' said her father. 'I was second, half a tenth behind Vladimir, and she fixed that. I am very proud,' he said, too emotional to continue. Liukin senior might have ended up lost for words Friday, but his daughter's gold was the perfect ending."I wonder what would have happened had she not won. And I also wonder what you do when you achieve your life's dream at 18. What do you do next?
August 15, 2008
Children as proxy?
Watched the women's all-around last night. It was high drama and some fantastic athleticism, and even some fun cheering for the USA. But while discussing gold medalist Nastia Liukin, the commentator said that she had been aiming for this gold medal her entire life, and that her father had taught her that the silver medal was bad. Turns out her father was a Soviet gymnast:
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3 comments:
That is terrible, but my heart broke when I heard about how the Chinese gymnastics program "enrolls" kids when they are 3 to train at special schools. They are allowed to visit their families once a year. The captian of the team apparently wanted to come home, but was told no by her family. I understand that athletes have to sacrifice a great deal to get to an elite level, but how much is too much?
It may not exist at the same militant level of the Olympics, but I can think of several kids here in our town "enrolled" in competitive soccer leagues for similar reasons--parental glory, the lure of "scholarships" to pay for college later, etc., etc. Big pressure, and serious money.
Anglican, I completely agree. There are plenty of people outside the Olympic level who push their kids towards sports for very questionable reasons. My parents certainly enjoyed my sporting events, but never pushed me to see them as anything more important than school, or other activities. I cannot imagine living my entire life around one sport. Liukin also said that his daughter participated, not because he made her, or her mother, but because she wanted to--from an infant.
Yeah, right.
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