It’s truly was a great moment when the Singapore table tennis team overcame the Koreans to secure the placing in the finals of the women’s table tennis team finals. It really was.
I saw the match and it was really a nail biting ( I was waiting for my turn to get my poor overworked laptop fixed ) match. When they won, I felt a great sense of pride. Yes, a confirmed medal… a silver at the least but more importantly the chance of a gold medal.
I probably would be soooo proud of the medal if only if the team captain hadn’t made the remark before the match. The remark was that the China team is going to win… so to me, as a sportsman to have made such a remark has already lost half the match. It’s like we’ve got silver, that’s enough and stop trying. And indeed, we suffered a crushing defeat… China 3 Singapore 0.
I am not saying that they did not try their best. But I can be sure that in their minds, there is already a mental picture that they are already going to lose to China. I mean, you fought so hard to get to the finals and the gold medal was within reach, shouldn’t one fight the hardest and never to bow down to giants to the end?
The last medal won by Singapore was 48 years ago by the weight lifter, Tan Howe Liang. He fought hard to the end without any support, monetary reward (now winning a silver medal equates getting a cool $750k… ) nor recognition like what we have now… He fought for Singapore. This is the true Olympian hero!
I hope to see in my lifetime, our very own true Singapore Olympic Gold Medalist!
Ok, enough of my rant… check out this funny site about Olympics… ( i still prefer LOL cats though… ) :
lolympics.tumblr.com/
Special note : do check out the Singapore’s Li Jia Wei entry…
lolympics.tumblr.com/post/46197923/i-iz-bettr-at-tabel-teniz-rly-thanks-to-our
August 19th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Same feeling as I watched the Men’s Single Badminton Final - China Vs. M’sia. Too hard to beat, but proud enough to be in the game.