I know, you care SO much about rugby
Erin Ridout has, as usual, descriped the feeling of competitional loss much better than I. She has yet to do the same for my emotional feelings of loss, but thats because she has no emotions. Anyway, this is stolen from her xanga:
There are some who may think of a loss in sports as trivial. I am not one of those people. Games are won and games are lost. And some games are not as important as others. But there are always those games that make or break you, that make your cheer or make your cry, that lift or kill your spirit.
I have often heard that Olympians who win the bronze medal are happier than those who win silver. The silver medalist spends so much time criticizing herself for what she could have done differently to have won the gold. While the bronze medalist is just happy that he won a medal at all. I used to believe this. However, now I think that the bronze medalist is just as critical, just as dishreatened, just as miserable. To taste the opportunity for greatness and then fall short does not seem like a victory.
You see, we often forget that to even be an Olympian is a great feat. We also forget that 3rd in the world is nothing to scoff at. An audience may be just as impressed with a bronze medalist as a gold medalist, yet that does not help the 3rd place winner. The 3rd place winner has spent just as much time as the other competitors. Has made just as many sacrifices. Has dreamed just as big.
No one strives for less than 1st. No one runs sprints with the goal of being the 3rd best. Motivation comes from the desire to be the best. And disappointment comes from being anything less.
So yes, Mary Wash Women's Rugby is number 1 in the mid-atlantic. And yes, we are number 5 in United States. But I can't help but be slightly devastated that we missed our opportunity to step onto that pitch in Stanford, CA for the Division II women's finals.
There are some who may think of a loss in sports as trivial. I am not one of those people. Games are won and games are lost. And some games are not as important as others. But there are always those games that make or break you, that make your cheer or make your cry, that lift or kill your spirit.
I have often heard that Olympians who win the bronze medal are happier than those who win silver. The silver medalist spends so much time criticizing herself for what she could have done differently to have won the gold. While the bronze medalist is just happy that he won a medal at all. I used to believe this. However, now I think that the bronze medalist is just as critical, just as dishreatened, just as miserable. To taste the opportunity for greatness and then fall short does not seem like a victory.
You see, we often forget that to even be an Olympian is a great feat. We also forget that 3rd in the world is nothing to scoff at. An audience may be just as impressed with a bronze medalist as a gold medalist, yet that does not help the 3rd place winner. The 3rd place winner has spent just as much time as the other competitors. Has made just as many sacrifices. Has dreamed just as big.
No one strives for less than 1st. No one runs sprints with the goal of being the 3rd best. Motivation comes from the desire to be the best. And disappointment comes from being anything less.
So yes, Mary Wash Women's Rugby is number 1 in the mid-atlantic. And yes, we are number 5 in United States. But I can't help but be slightly devastated that we missed our opportunity to step onto that pitch in Stanford, CA for the Division II women's finals.