Apologies Are For Losers Not Winners

Written by Pio Sioa
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Yes it does grate on the morals to hear gasping athletes struggle to squeeze apologies in between gouging breaths, after not succeeding in winning medals for Samoa! The situation occurred a few days ago with our athletes at the Beijing Olympics. If it is some kind of cleansing ritual to win their way back into the fans favour, then that should stop. No athlete should ever be made to feel embarrassed by the fans for not winning. As fans we should all know that. Many of us do! But like everything else there are a few blockheads who need to be exposed to the round saw. We have seen our champions like Ele Opeloge and Aunese Cureen step up to the world stage of competition. Maybe they did not medal, but they sure did impress before the eyes of the world. Opeloge was our true medal hope with the winning chance of an outsider. She almost pulled off a fairy tale ending. The way she lost those winning weights will probably continue to play in her head. The scene at Beijing will remain a permanent fixture in the mind unless she can triumph on a similar international stage or in the next Olympic Games. Aunese Cureen would have been the 9th athlete to make it to the semi-finals of the 800-meter race if the qualifiers extended beyond the first 8 runners. But watching Cureen race live on TV was a proud moment to be a Samoa. He ran so competitively he should have no reason to apologize to anyone, unless it is to himself for something we ad fans are not aware of. Then there was Farani Tavui who literally started Samoa’s bid for an Olympic medal with a knockout. The fans have debated that maybe he should have stayed down and take the knock out, rather than fight to stand on his feet and try to keep the medal dream alive. Muaausa Joseph Walters was watched by the Head of State himself, and did impress many who saw him in competition. He tried archery only a few years ago and stayed on to become the most promising archer Samoa has to offer. He is a person with a exciting and yet untapped potential. Should he apologise for that? Our other two athletes, Berking and Serafina are New Zealand based, so they were not as well known to the local fans as their other teammates. The management however knew enough about their potentials to include them in the team. So there it was for our Team Olympics 2008. What separates this team from the others before them is firstly the real chance for Samoa to medal through Ele Opeloge. There have never been any chances like this for Samoa. Secondly, Beijing has updated us on where our sports development is at. We now where we are and where we should go in the next 4 years when the Olympics is upon us once again. We now have the sporting facilities. Our sports people knows what our athletes need and if as suggested we need top international coaches, maybe we should bring in top international coaches. We need to train our athletes to go out there and be more competitive than they were in Beijing. They must be aware at the same time too that if their best is not good enough to win them medals DON’T APOLOGISE FOR IT. Comments (2) Subscribe to this comment's feed It's our cultural identification written by Jemin, August 26, 2008 I suppose we are one of the very few countries or the only country in the world where athletes feel that they owe their country an apology after losing in the olympics. I see nothing wrong with this because our culture is not an Individualistic one. We value the importance of how others feel about us. Congrats to our athletes and your apology is accepted. ... written by TM09, October 30, 2008 I agree... True Fans support and commend our athletes regardless... win or lose... we should all be proud that these fellow countrymen are proud to represent SAMOA on the world stage... Congratulations and job well done to all athletes in any sport who represent our country with pride.!! Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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