故事

When One's Fate is in Another's Hands

An Article from the Beijing Olympics paper
12th August 2008
Author: Xing Hai Guang

On the 11th of August, just as the American team swam its final lap of the 4 x 100m mens freestyle finals securing the gold medal, a normally calm and collected Phelps, unable to hold back any longer, clenched his fists and let out a mighty roar of victory so powerful it left reporters stunned.

Phelps should be used to gold medals by now, so why was he so overcome this time? What did he see in this team gold medal? I believe that this had to do with the team having come off to a slow start to begin with but regaining the lead later on (on his first lap, Phelps was behind. His team mates captured the lead towards the end. The result was exhilarating). I believe that it also had to do with Phelps' dream of being the first to win 8 gold medals in Olympic history. You see, from his point of view, in any of his solo events, he is almost certainly assured of victory. But in order to win a team gold, his fate is in the hands of his team mates. He must count on their strength, not just his own.

If we agree that a solo athlete's motivation as represented by the Olympic spirit is to be "faster", "higher" and "stronger" and that he challenges himself constantly to this end, then it can be said that the team athlete's highest goal as represented by the Olympic mission is "mutual understanding", "friendship" and "cohesion". The phrase "one breath, one fate" is the mantra of team events. It is only when the athlete deeply understands the experience of having his fate rest in the hands of his team and the fate of his team rest in his hands, that he stands a hope of victory. This is no mean feat.

During this competition, we got a taste of what it was like for Phelps to gain victory. But such victory is intimately linked with sacrifice. Sometimes a single mistake can cost your team mate the chance of a lifetime.

Only 2 days before Phelps won gold, 21 year old Chinese cyclist, Zhang Liang made a grave mistake. That afternoon, for various reasons, Zhang Liang didn't show up for the men's doubles road race and was disqualified from the competition altogether. If he had been the only one who had to farewell the Olympics due to his error then so be it. However as this was a doubles event, his partner, Su Hui was also automatically disqualified. At 21, if Zhang persists in his training, he still has a chance at the next Olympics. Su Hui is 26 years old. He had to concede defeat in Athens in 2004 and was ready to shine in Beijing 2008. At his age, participating in the next Olympic games will be extremely challenging.

As an observer, apart from sighing in disappointment and feeling terrible about such a turn of events, I must ask this question: If Zhang Liang had considered, as he went about his day, that Su Hui's fate was resting on his shoulders, would things have turned out differently? If people as a whole, as they are going about their day, give a little more thought to those whose fates rest on their shoulders, would this change a lot of other things too?