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I loved Eric the Eel, and he sums up what the Olympics is about. Sure - it is about excellence and elite athlete's at the top of their game but its also about personal goals. Here was a guy who basically got into the games by taking advantage of the rules around developing countries, a swimmer from a land locked country who couldnt afford to get into the only swimming pool in his city for much training, and consequently worked out his tactics laying on his belly on the floor of his living room.
By some accident of fate the other two men were disqualified in his heat - and he was left to swim 100 metres in a solo race, and it must have started to strike him then that he basically couldnt swim. He actually did ok until the turn, when he inadvisedly tried a kick turn and got into trouble... he made it most of the way back but started to grind to a halt, 15 metres from the end I remember the lifeguards poised for the most improbably of rescues, and the crowd starting to roar him home as he somehow thrashed his way through the water to make it home again.
I remember reading about him, how before his race he was trying to get autographs of his favourite swimmers and they were blanking him, but after what he did they all wanted pictures with him, Thorpe gave him a swmsuit, etc.
He went out and challenged himself, and came through it and did something that by all rights he shouldnt have been capable of... I think it is bloody heroic to do a 100 Metres freestyle in the olympic games when you cant actually swim, and even greater that he made it home - in whatever time.
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so heroes dont need to win to be great, in my opinion.
But I also think you have to be pretty special to overshadow the lightening bolt
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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