No Gain No Pain

For the past two weeks, our breakfast has been accompanied by the live broadcast of the Winter Olympics 2010 now happening in Vancouver. As I chewed my peanut butter and nutella sandwich, my eyes feasted on the beautiful snow capped landscape of Whistler mountain and the races and events going on that morning.

All the athletes there were amazing. There were the daredevil snowboarders doing sommersaults as they glide left and right on a gigantic snowy halfpipe. And the flying ski jumpers who compete to see who could fly furthest after coming off a slope. The freestyle aerial jumpers performed turns and sommersaults mid-air before landing on their two skis again. Then there were the speed demon skiers who dashed down the mountain slopes and negotiate tight curves at speeds of up to 140km/hr. And the graceful as a swan figure skaters who could dance on ice like a fairy.

It was lots of action as the world's best athletes in winter sports compete for the glory of being an Olympics medalist. And it is more than once that I imagine how it'll be if my sons made it to the Olympics. He doesn't have to win, I'll be proud enough to see him to be that good in a sport. But almost immediately, I'm reminded of the other side of the success story.

Each time I watch these people perform actions that I can only imagine myself doing in my dreams, I'II feel myself holding my breath and hoping they won't crash. But crash they do. So many times. I see world class atheletes falling hard onto the hard ice, sliding uncontrollably downhill, crashing into snow walls, being hit by their own skis and lying there grimacing painfully on the ground. Some of these sports can be so dangerous that serious injuries, permanent disabilities and even deaths can happen.

Australia has two gold medalist this year. Torah Bright in snowboarding halfpipe and Lydia Lasilla in Freestyle (Aerials). All of them had had falls and injuries during their training and previous competitions. An ex-Olympian champion Alisa Campbell said, the first time she aerial skied, she broke her rib. The second time, she crashed into a tree. The difference is, these people never gave up. One of Australia's youngest snowboarder at the games this year, 15-year old Scotts James, broke his wrist just the day before the competition during training but he competed anyway. Such are the winning attributes of perserverance and endurance.

If I'm the mother of these atheletes, I'll be torn between the pride of seeing them succeed and the pain of seeing them injure their bodies. There's a price that these atheletes and their loved ones pay for the victories and glories, many of which we do not see and some much more than others. Which would you rather have? An Olympic champion son with a body that's broken and healed so many times you wonder if he'll have problems at an older age or an average but healthy and normal Joe in the street?