You regularly hear after an exciting finish of a sports competition: who won? It is impossible to see with the naked eye who is entitled to the profit. Even after slowing down the video footage, it remains unclear who was first? Who won?
Or for cynics: who lost?
During the Olympics, many competitions are reduced to the result. Sport thrives on winning and losing.
After twenty-five seconds, judoka Henk Grol was lying with an ippon on his back. The tournament in his class was over. Afterward, Grol talked more to himself than to the camera: “No howl now. I just lost. I’m a stupid asshole.”
Grol’s honesty is of a granite beauty. On the judo mat he always sought confrontation with his opponents, once outside the ring he continued to fight. With and against itself.
A day after the last fight of his career, the self-anger had cooled somewhat and Grol dared to admit to himself how special and successful his judo years had actually been.
During the high jump athletics part I thought of Grol. How did he view the bizarre ending of this match?
High jumpers Italian Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Essa Barshim from Qatar competed for first place. They have been friends for a long time. Barshim helped the Italian out of the valley when he missed the Rio Games due to an ankle injury. In the empty stadium in Tokyo, they were not inferior to each other. Tamberi and Barshim had the same number of jumps and soared over a height of 2.37 meters.
They were exactly right.
A juror walked up with a clipboard in his hand. An A-4 fluttered under the clothesline. According to the rules, it could now go either way: either a jump-off followed, or the two men decided to share the gold. It became a legendary conversation.
Juror: “You can continue with the jump-off …”
Barshim: “Can we have two gold?”
Juror: “Possible.”
Barshim to Tamberi: “History, my friend. We are the champions.”
The Italian screamed and jumped into Barshim’s arms. The strength of friendship overcame ambition in top sport. With the decision to ‘draw’ there were two gold winners. And perhaps most importantly for the two high jumpers, there was no loser.
According to Henk Grol’s theory, you should never run away from a loss. In fact, you have to pound your head on it if necessary. There is no friendship in top sport. As a judoka you stand alone on the tatami.
The past few days I enjoyed two extremes; of the uncompromising hardness of Henk Grol but also of the softness between those high jumpers. What did I like the most? Guard. This is not a comparison, not a competition. No, I don’t choose. With which I devalue myself to an indecisive stupid asshole between three great sportsmen who wrote history.
Wilfried de Jong is a writer and program maker.
source https://pledgetimes.com/two-gold-medals-and-a-stupid-cock/
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