now that it's all done.
congrats to the db batch of 2015 :D you all have graduated. i am sure some are lost without direction now. i can fully understand. db was my life too. from the age of 13 till 25 and i decided to give it up. yes yes i was from canoeing but we did db in sec sch too so i fully understand. and this is also why i am team oriented lol and not weirdly individualistic like some canoiest ---> dbters are. lol sorry i am sure people can agree with me on this. this is me digressing.
anyway the most major games is over. an event that some of us/them have been preparing for 2 years for. i regret to say that i am not one of them. i left halfway, true. but my heart has always been with the team. i take cab to work and when i pass by nicoll highway, i will subconciously look out for them. and whenever i see them on the boat or doing pontoon paddling, my heart surges with... idk? hope? happiness? content? joining db, of course it was my intention to paddle as a boat but if i were to be the obstacle (too lousy) i'd happily give up my seat to other people. was not born competitive and i do not wish to 'kill' people who stand in my way. jos would probably scold me for this haha.
ranty post coming up.
checking out the monetary rewards for athletes who get medals for seagames, of course i was appalled that only gold medallists get the money. i am not saying that we compete for the sake of the money. it's a vicious cycle really. how can you expect the underperforming athletes to perform if you do not support them? with no input, there would be no output. of course another way of seeing it would be, with performance comes rewards. so it really goes both ways.
by rewarding only the gold medallists, i feel that it isn't fair for those who get silver/bronze. they didnt choose to be 2nd best or 2 runner up. of course the effort they put in for training, they were training for gold. noone goes into the competition training for bronze. everyone wants to be the best but unfortunately, someone else was better. by only rewarding the GM, whats the message that the rest of the medallists get? that my silver or bronze doesnt matter as much to the committee than the gold? sure, gold is a nice colour but in every sport, every event, there is only one up for grab.
gold might be expected for certain athletes. of course they'd train to deliver that.. but everyone, even the last placing trains to do their best for the gold medal. i dont know about other sports. but take db for example. anyone has any idea how long it took them to achieve this bronze medal for the 12 crew? 5 years.. from 2010 till 2015 and the girls finally did it.
so no matter what anyone thinks, they have NO idea what the girls went through. heck, even i dont know because i wasn't trng with them for the past 6-8months. they embarked on FULLTIME trng even though they weren't getting much from the association or the sports council.. they gave up everything or rather, they put everything on hold. just to train together, just to do their best for this seagames. this bronze probably doesnt mean much to many spectators out there, but it means the world to the girls and the guys. it is a result of all their hardwork, tears and sweat. they pushed through all the squabbles. things that could make or break them. they made it work for them.
now i am not saying that the other sports ppl aren't trng hard. it's just that db isn't viewed as much or medal hopefuls. look at the results from 2011 and 2013 seagames. we were 2 boat lengths behind the winner. we were at least 1 boat length behind the 2nd last placing. we were somewhat in a way, 'used' to being last. we just weren't good enough. but things started to change. we finally got a bronze medal in 2013 seagames in the 5 crew. i was still in the team then. my heart was bursting with happiness upon the news. i still have the video clip of shanice getting interviewed on my insta. i remember what she said :'D we've come so far from then. now we are bronze medallists for both 5 crew and 12 crew. it really is indescribable.
i told myself i will try and make it to the crew for 2015. it would be a great graduation for me.. but sadly, circumstances were different and i couldnt train properly due to work. i didnt make the cut so i decided to leave the team.. although physically apart, my heart was still with them. so this bronze means the world to me too.
i am sure other associations are better funded than the db association. i am not saying we want the rewards but we do need it. i was hopeful that more support would be given aft seagames since db achieved 5 bronzes. but someone told me that this is the most support we will get already and not to wish for more.
with only 6 to 8 months of full time trng and this is what we achieved. i am sure with more time, we would have been able to achieve more. other teams train for 2 years full time just to get that gold. of course they are duly rewarded. but sometimes, we want to input our efforts but there is no input from others into our lives. how can they be expected to train full time and survive on nothing? but the db team did it. for everyone in the fraternity is proud of them.. everyone knows how hard they trained.
which leads me to another question. if the medal hopefuls dont perform, then what? do they get banished? do the support they get from SC diminish? i really doubt it. in fact, i believe their own association will pump in even more money to make sure they perform the next time round. db doesnt have this chance.
this is just my own pov. feel free to correct me. and i cant speak for other sports because i was never with them so i might of course be biased towards db. but we were the underdogs and we rose up against all adversity, i just wish that the team can be more recognised.
anyway the most major games is over. an event that some of us/them have been preparing for 2 years for. i regret to say that i am not one of them. i left halfway, true. but my heart has always been with the team. i take cab to work and when i pass by nicoll highway, i will subconciously look out for them. and whenever i see them on the boat or doing pontoon paddling, my heart surges with... idk? hope? happiness? content? joining db, of course it was my intention to paddle as a boat but if i were to be the obstacle (too lousy) i'd happily give up my seat to other people. was not born competitive and i do not wish to 'kill' people who stand in my way. jos would probably scold me for this haha.
ranty post coming up.
checking out the monetary rewards for athletes who get medals for seagames, of course i was appalled that only gold medallists get the money. i am not saying that we compete for the sake of the money. it's a vicious cycle really. how can you expect the underperforming athletes to perform if you do not support them? with no input, there would be no output. of course another way of seeing it would be, with performance comes rewards. so it really goes both ways.
by rewarding only the gold medallists, i feel that it isn't fair for those who get silver/bronze. they didnt choose to be 2nd best or 2 runner up. of course the effort they put in for training, they were training for gold. noone goes into the competition training for bronze. everyone wants to be the best but unfortunately, someone else was better. by only rewarding the GM, whats the message that the rest of the medallists get? that my silver or bronze doesnt matter as much to the committee than the gold? sure, gold is a nice colour but in every sport, every event, there is only one up for grab.
gold might be expected for certain athletes. of course they'd train to deliver that.. but everyone, even the last placing trains to do their best for the gold medal. i dont know about other sports. but take db for example. anyone has any idea how long it took them to achieve this bronze medal for the 12 crew? 5 years.. from 2010 till 2015 and the girls finally did it.
so no matter what anyone thinks, they have NO idea what the girls went through. heck, even i dont know because i wasn't trng with them for the past 6-8months. they embarked on FULLTIME trng even though they weren't getting much from the association or the sports council.. they gave up everything or rather, they put everything on hold. just to train together, just to do their best for this seagames. this bronze probably doesnt mean much to many spectators out there, but it means the world to the girls and the guys. it is a result of all their hardwork, tears and sweat. they pushed through all the squabbles. things that could make or break them. they made it work for them.
now i am not saying that the other sports ppl aren't trng hard. it's just that db isn't viewed as much or medal hopefuls. look at the results from 2011 and 2013 seagames. we were 2 boat lengths behind the winner. we were at least 1 boat length behind the 2nd last placing. we were somewhat in a way, 'used' to being last. we just weren't good enough. but things started to change. we finally got a bronze medal in 2013 seagames in the 5 crew. i was still in the team then. my heart was bursting with happiness upon the news. i still have the video clip of shanice getting interviewed on my insta. i remember what she said :'D we've come so far from then. now we are bronze medallists for both 5 crew and 12 crew. it really is indescribable.
i told myself i will try and make it to the crew for 2015. it would be a great graduation for me.. but sadly, circumstances were different and i couldnt train properly due to work. i didnt make the cut so i decided to leave the team.. although physically apart, my heart was still with them. so this bronze means the world to me too.
i am sure other associations are better funded than the db association. i am not saying we want the rewards but we do need it. i was hopeful that more support would be given aft seagames since db achieved 5 bronzes. but someone told me that this is the most support we will get already and not to wish for more.
with only 6 to 8 months of full time trng and this is what we achieved. i am sure with more time, we would have been able to achieve more. other teams train for 2 years full time just to get that gold. of course they are duly rewarded. but sometimes, we want to input our efforts but there is no input from others into our lives. how can they be expected to train full time and survive on nothing? but the db team did it. for everyone in the fraternity is proud of them.. everyone knows how hard they trained.
which leads me to another question. if the medal hopefuls dont perform, then what? do they get banished? do the support they get from SC diminish? i really doubt it. in fact, i believe their own association will pump in even more money to make sure they perform the next time round. db doesnt have this chance.
this is just my own pov. feel free to correct me. and i cant speak for other sports because i was never with them so i might of course be biased towards db. but we were the underdogs and we rose up against all adversity, i just wish that the team can be more recognised.
posted by Pam @ 11:30 AM
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