By Ssemuddu Imran
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic games were held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 after being postponed in 2020 due to COVID-19. This edition had 200 countries and territories with over 11,000 athletes participating in the games.
The Olympics comes only once every four years and this calls for athletes to prepare themselves mentally for a shot at glory in record books and excellence on a global stage. In life we set goals that are either short or long term giving us a chance to be patiently waiting. However, if we do not set a time and objective of the goals we want, then we are actually wasting time.
There is a lot to relate, learn and reflect on about the just concluded Olympics. For elite athletes, it is a dream and an ambition to participate in Olympics and it takes a lot of effort to make it be selected for every participating nation. It takes selfless sacrifice, routine training, self-discipline and great determination. Objectives are realised once we embark on actions of execution that will lead us to desired success. This applies to all spheres of life. Watching all Olympians on television envisaged what it means to them and their respective countries.
It is important we learn from the Olympics the art of preparation, discipline, thorough training, dealing with pressure, confronting performance anxiety, and mental training. This edition of Olympics brought awareness regarding performance anxiety that is always ignored by both coaches and fans of athletes.
Japanese professional tennis player Naomi Osaka opened about her mental health issues that not only affected her in the Olympics but also led her to withdraw from the French Open. Naomi who is a self-proclaimed introvert was cautious about how the media had kept on asking her questions that were deeply scrutinising and thus she chose to exercise self-care and preservation of her mental health. This brought light to aspects of mental health where many more came to understand and learned about it, how real it is and how it can affect an individual.
The other aspect worthy of mention was performance anxiety where American artistic gymnast, Simone Biles told media she was stepping down for some events. Simone took the decision to withdraw from some Olympic gymnastics events to the surprise of many. She cited her mental health too after she was cautious of her performance during an event in Tokyo. Simone received outpouring support, affection and love from fellow athletes and fans with some condemning her for letting team USA down.
If anything there is to learn from a superstar like Simone Biles, it was her strength to come back and compete where she won a bronze medal to complement her amazing record of a combined total of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals in gymnastics.
Real determination won Olympians different medals, the best took gold, second best silver, and third best going home with bronze. Watching teary athletes celebrating their triumph not only signified their hard work in a difficult time where COVID-19 disrupted training schedules, but also recounting everything possible they did to make it to Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
San Marino and Burkina Faso made record when they won their first Olympic medals while Philippines, Qatar and Bermuda won their first golden Olympic medals. There was an important reminder that the journey to win matters a lot and so is preparation. It is a long journey to get results which includes constant learning, growing and courage to win.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics presented new sports such as baseball/softball, karate, skateboard, sports climbing and surfing. A life lesson is that there are new opportunities out there and they will be yours if you prepare enough. The value of teamwork is crucial as witnessed in most sports where the power of working together, excellent communication, support and synchronisation.
Great wins definitely do not come easily. A powerful sportsman spirit story came from Italian and Qatari high jumpers who both had a torrid journey to the Olympics. They had a chance to go for a split jump-off after they tied to decide the eventual winner of the gold medal. Instead both athletes decided to share the medal. Hard Work pays off and it was a common trait among all medalists.
A good lesson and proof that when you fall, pick yourself up came from Sifan Hassan, a Dutch distance runner who tripped and fell to the ground in 1500m race, she went on to win and successfully won a gold medal.
There are several other life lessons from Tokyo 2020 Olympics we can take but I will end with a few more and these are; choose kindness in everything you do as demonstrated by the volunteers from host country Japan; define your success, this was defined by some athletes whom winning was not the ultimate goal but the fact that they made it to Olympics is success itself and not all losses are bad. However, do not fail to give 100% in everything you do, because if you do impossible is nothing.***