Family Bonding | ACS Home & Work Blog

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

June 28th, 2010 |

Last Saturday was a full day watching my daughter perform at a horse show. I did not realize how competitive and difficult showing a horse is. First it’s a very long day; it’s not a few hours and its over. She was in 9 different events that started in the morning and lasted until 6:30 at night. There was some real nail biting, edge of your seat moments.

When the event was over I kept thinking about Jim McKay and ABS wide world of sports. The show always started with this really cool statement ” ABS Wide World of Sports, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”. With some really cool back ground music and great videos of skiers flying in the air. They new how to grab your attention.

I remember in the 70’s you could turn on the TV on Saturday and watch this show. The words are put together perfectly to maximize the full meaning of winning and losing. The thrill of victory, when I think of the word “thrill” I think about riding a roller coaster and throwing my hands up. (The thrill of the ride) And Victory, that is when you win. Victory was originally used as a military term. That makes sense; it takes a lot of hard work, sweat and blood to win a war. That is the same for sports. Agony, beautiful choice of words again, agony to me is like suffering. Suffering loss, heart ache, great prolong pain.

This might be a stretch when it comes to my daughters horse show. But it’s not if you think about it. That is why I love this phrase. It does not matter if it’s a little league baseball game or your business. There will be winners and losers. Life is not far. And sports helps us learn, appreciate and understand this fact.

Thomas Sole wrote a great piece how life is unfair. That is why this phrase resonated so well with me. When everything was said and done my daughter was trying to win. All the months of preparation and practicing were not just so she could show up and participate. It was because she wanted to win. And she might have put all this effort into this one day and went home with the agony of defeat. That’s the beauty of sports. After years of watching sports I finally got it. It’s about winning, not the game. Sure the game is fun, and there are some high points and low points. The great thing about sports is, it’s parallel to life’s experiences. Not only is it fun and exciting but we can all learn from these events.

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