(no subject)

[ceebeegee]

I don't get the Tall Poppy Syndrome. I remember reading about this during the last Summer Games in Sydney--how Australians resented it if they felt you were holding yourself too high. What is too high--and how does that affect anyone else? It just reads as insecurity and envy to me--"you think you're so smart!" I guess I have more in common with Ayn Rand than I thought.

I'm musing on this because I'm thinking about the reaction Michael Phelps got when he announced his ambition to score 8 golds (and now is trying for 8 medals). Ambition is good--right? If we didn't strive to better ourselves, we'd stagnate--right? If Phelps had been arrogant in his pursuit of this goal, if he'd trash-talked or denigrated his opponents, that would be objectionable but he didn't do that--he simply announced this was what he was trying to do, and then set about trying to do it. How can anyone have a problem with this? And why would they try to stand in his way (other than, of course, his opponents in the water who are trying to swim faster)? I just don't get it. If it offends you somehow, then let it challenge you to be a better swimmer. But to try to squash ambition--it's pathetic.

Comments

[mysticblaze.livejournal.com]

Marion Jones encountered the same problems when she announced that her ambition was to win 5 gold medals in the 2000 Olympics. She came away with 3 golds and 2 bronzes, and people still gave her grief because they weren't all gold, forgetting that she saved the US's chances of a medal in one of the relays (she was in two) because she was the anchor leg and was able to make up the time that her three teammates lost.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Marion Jones is a rock star. I love her, and hope she does well these Games. I would be pissing in my pants if I'd won even one medal, much less three gold and two bronze.