okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
A catalog of explanations for poor performance
I came across a "catalog" of explanations for a lack of success.
The athletes are like civil servants, they don't get results, they don't make enough effort.
They don't train enough.
They lack talent.
The best young athletes are unimpressive.
Everybody else is doping or cheating.
The sport is tough, the athletes aren't tough enough.
The athletes don't have the right attitude, their goals are too low, the don't respond to challenges.
I thought the list was interesting. I can imagine hearing these explanations for just about any nation and any sport when the results could have been better. It could be taken from a discussion of how the U.S. has performed at a WOC. Or it could be from a discussion on Alternativet on how Sweden performed at a WOC.
The list is actually from a newspaper story looking at the performance of French riders at the Tour de France.
