Competition

While the Olympics are going on, I have been playing electronic scrabble.  I haven't experienced a competition like this since I played board games when I was younger, and although friendly, I find I really I want to win. It is true that the Olympics is a competition with contestants or contenders, but it is actually more of a rivalry.  A rivalry where someone wants to win at something and prove that he is the best; further, a rivalry when contestant wants the same reward and their talents are about equal.  In the Olympics there is either competition as a group action, or among individuals, and then there is a further overall goal to win the overall games by accumulating the most medals.  The Olympic Games are ancient, origins of which are embraced by myth and legend.  Records indicate they started around 776 BC in Olympia Greece and were as much of a festival as a religious event.  Competitions/rivalries may be friendly or unfriendly; probably the best word for Olympic rivalry is that it is “intense.”  But, certainly baseball, basketball, soccer, and football competitions are tough and intense as well.  “Competing in sports has taught me that if I am not willing to give 120 percent, someone else will,” said Ron Blomberg, famous baseball player for the New York Yankees.  There is competition in everything from chess to ice skating.  It is obvious that people love a good competition.  It was estimated one billion people would watch the Olympics on television.  Originally the Olympic athletes were required to be amateurs, but over the years many countries were loosely defining this, so the IOC decided to let each sport’s governing body decide who could and couldn’t compete. Today almost all of the competitions in the Olympics accept professional athletes.  In the Olympics, the Olympiad’s compete against themselves (to set a better record), as well as try to be the best in their sport, and contribute toward the overall winning of the games.  The following is a quote by Stephanie Rice, Australian Olympic swimmer, “And I guess the thing I sort of rely on in me is that I love racing and I love competing and so I know that you know when the time comes and the pressure’s on and I have to swim well, well I am sort of able to pull it out and sort of get the best of myself.”  She was a hopeful in the 400 mile individual medley.  However, according to the Herald Sun, she lost her Olympic title and her world record today finishing sixth in the 400m medley.  She has been battling a shoulder injury and it takes just one race.  There is competition in almost everything, just think of all the advertising and marketing that retailers do.  It seems that everyone, everywhere, is in competition with others for something, even in relationships.