It’s the striving, not the sports, that keeps us hooked
I’VE often thought about why it is that every four years I am gripped for two weeks by kayaking, windsurfing, skateboarding and all the other obscure sports we’ve been addicted to over the past fortnight – to which, for the other 208 weeks between Olympics, we don’t give a moment’s thought.
The answer, of course, is that word: Olympics. There is something magical and unique about the Olympic Games, even if you’re not especially into sport. My mum and my sister, who would never normally watch any sport, were obsessively checking their schedules to make sure they were in front of the TV for Simone Biles’s floor exercise or Keely Hodgkinson’s 800m final. And for those of us who do love sport, it’s a joy to be able to indulge ourselves, knowing that most of the world is doing the same.
But although the Games may be over, with Paris now just a memory, the factors that lie behind our love of the Olympics are far from finished – and they are applicable far beyond sport. In that respect, King Charles’s message to the British team on Sunday summed up perfectly why it is that we appreciate the athletes’ efforts so much, no matter how ignorant we may be of their particular sport: “Your achievements, across so many disciplines, were forged from that invaluable combination of raw talent, true grit and hard toil over many years.”
That last phrase, “hard toil”, leaps out. It is, of course, a given that anyone who represents their country at the Olympics has talent.
BUT as we all know – and this is true in every walk of life – talent alone is never enough. We all know of kids who seemed to be exceptionally gifted in sport, academically or artistically, but who, for whatever reason, faded in their teens or when they became adults. That’s true in every sphere.
As King Charles put it, there are two other prerequisites for raw talent to develop and bloom: “true grit and hard toil over many years”.
There’s an old joke about a man seeing the legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz getting out of a cab on 57th Street in New York. He asks: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Without skipping a beat, the violinist replies: “Practice.”
It’s a lesson that is too often ignored. Today’s “everything on-demand” and “everything now” culture is the antithesis of what it takes to develop a talent, to nurture a skill and to set in train the tools needed for consistent success.
David Beckham gave the appearance of being so naturally talented that he simply had to turn up to score his astonishing free kicks. But he was renowned among his teammates for being the first to arrive and the last to leave at training and would spend hours practising free kicks – just as JonnyWilkinson did, which enabled his perfect drop goal in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final.
It’s equally true for musicians, chess players and any other discipline. In his 2008 book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell put forward the theory that it takes someone around 10,000 hours of practice and active participation to become an expert in any given field, profession, activity, hobby or skill. Whatever the accuracy of the 10,000 figure, the point itself is entirely correct – no one succeeds if they don’t put in the hard toil.
And that, surely, is the wider lesson of the Olympics: the toil is not just necessary for success but also its own reward. More than 10,000 athletes competed in Paris and around 1,000 medals were won. In other words, 90 per cent of athletes went home with nothing. But that misses the point: their achievement was monumental because they trained and learned and pushed themselves to their very limits to be the best they possibly could at their discipline.
And we could all appreciate that, as much for the athlete who came last in their event as for those who took a gold medal home. That’s why we are also so in awe of the Paralympic athletes, who push the boundaries of human achievement as we watch on in wonderment.
THE Olympics are, of course, above all fun. They are there for enjoyment. But that lesson – that behind every success lies grit and toil – is a key lesson for life.As a parent I know how difficult it can be to instil in children the idea that knowledge, success or even development doesn’t just come along – it has to be earned through hard work. But it’s one of the most vital lessons any parent can give their child. Because it’s a lesson that matters throughout adulthood. You get nowhere if you don’t work at it – if you don’t put in the hard yards.
But if you do, then you have already succeeded.
‘The lesson is that toil is necessary for its own reward’