Monday, February 22, 2010

Olympics: Good friends or gold medals?

Would Shaun White be as amazing as he is if he made friends with other boarders and trained with them?

In his piece on 60 minutes, a quote was read to him about how the other snowboarders felt sad for him because he was alone at the top and trained alone. And although they are not number 1, they have the support of the other boarders around them at all times. At that point. I came to realize that in addition to the financial and physical life sacrifices one has to make to be at the top of their game, they also have to give up something emotional.

Scott Lago put together one of the best runs of his life to win the surprise bronze on a night still overshadowed by Shaun White and his gold-medal performance. I'm sure it is frustrating and hard to be friends with someone who dominates the sport you love and shows no signs of ever sharing the top spot with anyone.

Therefore I have come to the conclusion that Shaun White would not be as amazing as he is if he made it a priority to be friends with other snowboarders, train with them, show them his tricks and share his top-secret training facility.


Its lonely at the top, but at least you have the security of gold and the love of strangers all over the world.

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