After almost a month in London, things are shaping up, and it is rather reassuring. I am still stumbling here and there, sometimes with accents, sometimes with some political statement it would be plain futile to discuss. I am not lost though, and I am quite eager to find out what sport and venue I will get assigned for the Olympics. However, before this can happen, I am on training, to learn about the rules and other Principles Of Operations applied to all venues.
While France is debating on and looking for its next president, the idea of losing something seems inherent to the current country’s status. Fortunately, it is not true in sport. With the recent draw for the Olympics in football (or soccer, for our North American readers), the French Women team has strong chances to get what the Male team lost at the 2010 World Cup, rerun a game against the USA and forget their World Cup performance in 2011. And that does not require losing their clothes to get attention.
Other female athletes have had reasons to lose hope, or faith for some, and stories like Amantle Montsho‘s winning the world championship last year in the 400 metres race only injects more inspiration into Botswanans and bursts little girls dreams, from there and everywhere. These young girls can only find their way, not having gone through a sentiment of losing anything: to the contrary, they have everything to gain, even if it is not a medal on an international podium somewhere (although it can feel awesome too).
Losing a game can be daunting, no question, yet, losing the opportunity to play is much more painful, especially when the decision is made by people who rarely set a foot on the field of play.
The female Iranian football team is off the grid, for political reasons, and that is a shame, from a sport and human standpoint. This is not necessarily an issue related to their country / faith of origin, although one could think so, and wait for Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC, to clear the air with the Saudi government and work on complying with one of the IOC charters on gender equality. The topic is controversial, and raises concerns: who can teach a lesson to the other party, and from what point of view? Is anybody losing anything? And if so, what are the chances to recover?
The “lost and found policy” within the Olympics is pretty straight forward: depending on the value (and the circumstances) of what is lost, we can involve the domestic police. Both the security and the safety of the athletes could be at stake, therefore it is our responsibility to call higher, and legal, authorities, especially when “lost” stands for “stolen”. It seems that when it is the right to compete, at any kind of sport event, that gets lost, there are as many authorities as there are interpretations of the words “right” and “lost”. I am only wishing all athletes to find a way to live their dream very soon.
Photo credit: FFF/Pauce/Hémisphère Droit