Sigh...I am disillusioned.
While I was able to make a post about Tour de France teams tackling the issue of doping here, it seems that not all teams are trying to do what Team Columbia and Team Garmin-Chipotle are doing. That is because, as of yesterday, three riders have been caught, one team has dropped out entirely, and another team sponsor will quit following the Tour because people still refuse to ride clean.
Riccardo Ricco, Manuel Beltran, and Moises Duenas Nevado are all gone from this year's Tour. Ricco's Saunier Duval team has since pulled out in disgrace. Team Barloworld, sponsor of Moises Duenas Nevado, will quit after the Tour ends, refusing to endorse a dirty team.
Honestly, I just don't get it. I don't understand how a person can be so "committed" to winning that they are willing to cheat to do it. Further, I don't understand how someone can live with such a win.
My parents taught me early on about the concept of a clean win. Agincourt and I have started playing gin these days as a break from our cribbage war. It is hard for me because it makes me miss my father. Gin is the first game he and I played together. He showed me no mercy, even as an eight year old little girl. He watched every card I threw away and would go out of his way to not play into what I needed. It took me forever to learn how to remember what cards had been played, but I did eventually. And eventually I was able to beat him.
My mom did the same thing for me. She was a swimmer before I was. She taught me everything I know. In fact, she is probably more in shape than I am because, at age 82, she is still a competitive Master's swimmer. Back when I was a wee thing, she and I would race. She would never ever let me win. I hated it. I hated every minute of it. I thought she should let me win something just because. Looking back, it was the best of lessons. She knew I could eventually beat her on my own. She knew that I would work to do it on my own. She never gave me an easy way out. I am a stronger person because of that.
This is where I have such an issue with what cheating riders in Le Tour are doing. I learned the hard way. Train hard, be dedicated, and win with what you can do on your own. If you can't win, then accept that...don't cheat to make it otherwise.
The Tour de France, the Olympics, baseball, football...all of these sports...if you want to be an athlete then be an athlete. Don't be a cheater. A cheater cheats themselves. A cheater cheats everyone else.
Simple as that.
While I was able to make a post about Tour de France teams tackling the issue of doping here, it seems that not all teams are trying to do what Team Columbia and Team Garmin-Chipotle are doing. That is because, as of yesterday, three riders have been caught, one team has dropped out entirely, and another team sponsor will quit following the Tour because people still refuse to ride clean.
Riccardo Ricco, Manuel Beltran, and Moises Duenas Nevado are all gone from this year's Tour. Ricco's Saunier Duval team has since pulled out in disgrace. Team Barloworld, sponsor of Moises Duenas Nevado, will quit after the Tour ends, refusing to endorse a dirty team.
Honestly, I just don't get it. I don't understand how a person can be so "committed" to winning that they are willing to cheat to do it. Further, I don't understand how someone can live with such a win.
My parents taught me early on about the concept of a clean win. Agincourt and I have started playing gin these days as a break from our cribbage war. It is hard for me because it makes me miss my father. Gin is the first game he and I played together. He showed me no mercy, even as an eight year old little girl. He watched every card I threw away and would go out of his way to not play into what I needed. It took me forever to learn how to remember what cards had been played, but I did eventually. And eventually I was able to beat him.
My mom did the same thing for me. She was a swimmer before I was. She taught me everything I know. In fact, she is probably more in shape than I am because, at age 82, she is still a competitive Master's swimmer. Back when I was a wee thing, she and I would race. She would never ever let me win. I hated it. I hated every minute of it. I thought she should let me win something just because. Looking back, it was the best of lessons. She knew I could eventually beat her on my own. She knew that I would work to do it on my own. She never gave me an easy way out. I am a stronger person because of that.
This is where I have such an issue with what cheating riders in Le Tour are doing. I learned the hard way. Train hard, be dedicated, and win with what you can do on your own. If you can't win, then accept that...don't cheat to make it otherwise.
The Tour de France, the Olympics, baseball, football...all of these sports...if you want to be an athlete then be an athlete. Don't be a cheater. A cheater cheats themselves. A cheater cheats everyone else.
Simple as that.
2 comments:
I taught my son to play chess without letting him win. He was about 7. What I did was take away some of my pieces until we played competitively against each other, him with a full set, me with half. It was easy to see how he was getting better, he would win and when he won too much I would have to add pieces back. We eventually got to playing full sets against each other. But then the divorce and parential alienation set in and I haven't seen him in years. My understanding is that he got to be quite good, so good that his maternal grandfather wouldn't play him because he didn't like to lose.
I wouldn't mind playing him, because if he does win all the time, I have a solution, take some of his pieces away.
Yippee! Someone commented on an Armchair Philosophies post...the poor little forgotten blog of ours.
I love your story. Thank you for sharing! What a brilliant teaching method. I am sorry that you are unable to still share chess with your son. It is good to have a game plan though in case the future brings you back around for another shot at victory.
Post a Comment