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i think my favorite winter olympic event is short track speed skating. it’s ice skating with an attitude. it’s about speed and technique and nerves of steel and positioning and explosive attack…and going back to 2002, i became a fan of apolo anton ohno, the united states’ best over the past ten years.
yesterday, he was competing in the 1500 meter race…two minutes of mayhem…kind of like roller derby on crack. yeah, short track is definitely my favorite.
in the final lap of the race, ohno had been passed and was sitting in fourth place…behind three south koreans, who were poised to take the bronze, silver and the gold. until the last turn. that’s when it happened. the third south korean seemed to slightly lose control of his skate…and then the unthinkable.
he fell. and not just him, but as he slid out of control, he took out the legs of his teammate and both of them crashed into the side boards…and in the final seconds of the race, apolo ohno slipped into second place and a fellow u.s. skater, j.r. celski cruised into third.
from a total loss to standing on the podium in a split second. for the south koreans, it was triumph to tragedy in the blink of an eye.
and as happy as i was for ohno, all i could think about at that moment was the sadness of kids who fell. everything they had worked for over the past four years had crumbled in an instant. i can’t even imagine the disappointment that they must have been feeling…and how crushing it was for them and their families. but they will get up.
failure does not have to be the end.
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