GACHUHI: Winning is everything in sports, but not for every athlete

Although he was not talking specifically about sports journalists and the incurably opinionated fans, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, might as well have been scoffing at them when he extolled the nobility of single minded effort thus:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

This statement represents one of the most graphic tributes ever paid to those who try hard in whatever field of life they are engaged in. Many people have used it as a powerful motivator.

Which is well and good until we acknowledge its one-dimensional character: it implies that whoever engages in competition wants to succeed. This is not always the case. Improbable as it sounds, there are people who are scared of success and some go to great lengths to sabotage themselves. And they succeed.

In the course of their work, many sports journalists have seen a young competitor who was destined to become an Eliud Kipchoge, a Serena Williams, a Tiger Woods, a Muhammad Ali, a Cristiano Ronaldo but who flames out almost immediately attention comes their way.

Although our pages are billboards celebrating great success, they are also cemeteries where many aborted careers are buried.

Here then is the story of the underachiever: the competitor who shows so much promise but fails to deliver on it.

Parents see this in their children and coaches see it in their charges every day.

Journalists crow about the newest kid on the block. But he or she transitions from brilliance, to mediocrity and to extinction even before they have written the first in-depth profile and they are left bewildered: what happened?

The first time I came across the notion of people being afraid of success was early in the 1980s. I was interviewing the then national athletics coach, a German expert called Walter Abmyr.

He went over the personality traits of his athletes and it is then he said: “You need to understand the character of the athlete so as to get the most out of him or her. Some people cannot handle success and work against themselves to avoid it. There is a conflict between their physical capabilities and their mental make-up. If you understand this you can help them.”

The surprising thing is that a person who fears success can actually give the impression of making a Rooseveltian effort and get away with it. He or she will show all the great enthusiasms that the effort calls for, will be the most reliable team player and even assume a leadership position.

But something always tends to happen when it shouldn’t — like an injury or an illness in the family. It happens when the competitor is needed most but unfortunately it is something beyond his or her control.

It is not easy to see through such a competitor and it may require a skilled coach, usually one with knowledge of human psychology to understand what is happening. Less skilled coaches resort to berating the athlete or dropping them from the team altogether.

Many people say they want to succeed but success comes with a baggage they are unable to carry. They already know how to navigate the contours of their humble spaces — enjoying quality time with the boys and girls, chatting with the local pastor and making parties with village mates during holidays.

But how to handle meetings with the Cabinet Secretary, the Governor, corporate chiefs, conduct media interviews and endure being gossiped about in social media? And then there is the beeline that they have to contend with of people with one problem or the other, a whole slew of friends to your success but not your person. Pray tell, even family politics becomes unbearable. Who wants all this? What value does it add?

Keith Manos is a former high school athletics and wrestling coach in the United States. He has written manuals on his areas of speciality. This is some of what he had to say about under achieving athletes:

“If an athlete continually claims he or she is injured, and recovery is always prolonged, it may be a signal that the competition is more threatening than the injury itself. This is the athlete who exaggerates a limp or grimaces at the slightest touch. Some may try to become injured since only an injury can provide them some of the psychological nurturing they cannot receive elsewhere. In this way, the athlete gets sympathy, relief from the competition, and possibly a heroic stature in the eyes of peers.”

To some people, there is nothing more therapeutic than expressions of sympathy. It goes down like a sumptuous meal in a time of hunger: “Woishe, you hurt your ankle, pole sana. Don’t worry, I wish you a speedy recovery.” Enough parents have been told by their school games master that their child is a true revelation, one not seen before in the school football, basketball, swimming or tennis team. And yet, before major competitions, all they ever do is spend copious amounts of time nursing those children in bed, giving them medicines and food in prescribed amounts. Once the competition passes, the children make a quick recovery!

A variety of reasons have been advanced to explain the wildness in the behaviour of some highly talented competitors such as excessive drinking and multiple affairs, some abusive. It could be an irrational, impulsive response to unimaginable riches accrued within a short time. It could be disbelief at the achievement and a desire to remind oneself that all this is not a dream. It could be a loud, self-destructive statement to announce arrival.

But some psychologists believe it could also be a subconscious effort at self-sabotage to protest an achievement that wasn’t desired in the first place. It is a yearning for a way out, a longing to return to comfortable realms where there is no continuous pressure to perform to the world’s expectations.

Many talented schoolchildren find themselves in these circumstances but under pressure from ambitious parents and teachers, they find themselves trapped and go on in a direction that they actually detest. This can go on for only so long. At the instigation of the flimsiest of triggers when the time is ripe, the calamitous break happens and everybody is puzzled about how that could happen.

Manos counsels a clear, personal understanding of an athlete. They are not all the same. He says: “Do not reprimand any athlete for faking an injury. In this situation, the athlete is sending an obvious signal that there is a more serious problem below the surface — often a personal one that has nothing to do with you, the team, or the sport. Communication and understanding are the keys to straightening out this type of problem.”

Unfortunately, in a poor country like Kenya, professional services like psychological counselling are available only to a very limited number of sportsmen and women. Some coaches are still running on 1960s manuals. And parents just want success, in any way it will come. It makes up for their own shortfalls and they crave to bask in the reflected success of their children.

The billions of dollars up for grabs in the global sports industry represent a powerful temptation for parents and coaches to push their charges to the outer edges of one’s capabilities. That is fine. Only remember this: not everybody wants to win. Not everybody wants to be famous. Not everybody wants to be a celebrity. And all this, despite their enormous natural endowment.

Being talented in an activity does not always translate into a desire to excel in it. Pushed without any choice into that activity, such a competitor will be a problem first to themselves and then to everybody else. He or she will fake injury and as the level of competition rises, will lose on purpose, not because he or she has been bribed to throw the game in favour of an opponent, but because it will attract a penalty. Very soon he will get his marching orders and into sweet freedom.

So, don’t always believe the evidence of your own eyes. The man “in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly …” may not actually be trying to win. He may be looking for a way out. Just because in one dazzling manoeuvre he can leave the best defenders flat-footed doesn’t mean he would enjoy soaking in the din of 80,000 spectators chanting his name.

He may want none of all that. Maybe he just wants a quiet life growing carrots and cabbages and selling them in the market for a good price. It may seem incomprehensible and unacceptable for one so prodigiously gifted. But as the best sports coaches counsel, it is not about you, it is about him. It is his life, not yours. Support him, or get out of his way.