Someone doesn’t have The Olympic Spirit
August 14th, 2008 - byThat someone is Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian. After losing to the eventual gold medal winner Andrea Minguzzi of Italy in the semi-finals of the 84 kilogram Greco-Roman wrestling, Abrahamian threw a hissy-fit, shouting at the referee and officials, and stormed off. From Douglas Hamilton’s article on Yahoo! Sports:
Swedish fans booed loudly as the judges filed out of the arena. Abrahamian said nothing to waiting reporters but whacked an aluminium barricade with his fist as he left the hall.
The Swedes were more than likely booing the judges, but those boos probably should’ve been for their own contryman for reacting like he did. To make matters worse, Abrahamian had to be persuaded by friends to wrestle for the bronze (which he won), and at the medal ceremony, he received the bronze medal, shook the presenter’s hand, shook Minguzzi’s hand, stepped off the podium, walked to the center of the mat, dropped his bronze medal and left the building.
And then he quit the sport.
“This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure,” he said.
Kids, don’t try this at home.
Sometimes, things don’t go your way. You can’t win every bout, every set, every match, every game. Rather than pout that things didn’t go your way, you need to grow from those setbacks and become not just better at your sport, but a better person.
Michael Jordan for example. He didn’t make his high school’s varsity team when he first tried out. But look what happened to him.
Your mistakes only make you stronger.
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot… and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why… I succeed. ” - Michael Jordan
