Breathe Magazine

‘It was just crazy, and so exciting.’ No matter who you’d been rooting for – if anyone – the words of 14-year-old skateboarder Arisa Trew, after receiving an Olympic gold medal in August, couldn’t fail to delight. The youngest-ever Australian woman to win at the highest level, many commentated on how she’d done herself – and her country – proud.
But pride, described in Collins English Dictionary variously as: ‘A feeling of honour and self-respect; a sense of personal worth’ and ‘Satisfaction or pleasure taken in one’s own or another’s success, achievements etc, (especially in the phrase “take (a) pride (in)”’, doesn’t apply only to the wins. Every athlete who appeared on the track, in the pool or with
Arisa in the skatepark, has reason to feel proud. They put themselves
on the line, in front of thousands of spectators in Paris and millions
of TV viewers around the world. It’s a brave thing to do.
Behind the scenes, of course, is the collective coaching and family effort, years of training and, for some, injury and personal setbacks. But on and on they go, determined to turn the dreams they visualise with every sense of their being a reality. Anyone who’s ever put themselves out there in an effort to achieve their goals will tell a similar story of hard work, dedication and stumbling blocks. And regardless of when or whether the target was reached, that’s reason enough to feel proud.
To quote another novice Olympian and the youngest member of Team GB’s athletics squad, 17-year-old Phoebe Gill, who reached the 800m semi-final: ‘Obviously I’m gutted I didn’t make the final but so proud
that I was actually able to go through this.’ Hopefully it’s okay for
non-Olympians (ie, most of the world’s population) to take pride in
her success as well as all of those who put themselves on the line, whether it’s in front of one person or millions.