Feather Fighter

Source: http://www.veryicon.com/icon/png/Application/Database%20Filter/Filter%20Feather.png

Well this is awkward. I never thought I would be writing about you in here, cos you were never anyone important to me. Not because you're not good in what you do, you no doubt are the best. But so is she, and just because her sport is not in the Games doesn't make her any less respectable. I didn't care much about the way your game is played, although I've grown up playing it every now and then. It's a rich man's game and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. 

It has always been awesome, how you fell. How you kept falling, over and over again to the same man. I say awesome not because I loved watching you fail so many times, but because you immediately got back up and looked to your next meet with him. I come not as a professional national athlete, but as someone quite similar. You see, my sport did not enjoy the same equality and support as yours mainly because it is misunderstood. I did not get into your sport just to be equal and understood because I'm sure you'd agree that passion cannot accommodate stigma. 

He's great and all, but that's only because he had you. Look at the sprinter. You think he's having a lot of fun? At the final moments of his run, he looked up at the time to see if he had broken his last record. That's not fun, that's a morning walk. Who is Superman without Luther? Spiderman without Carnage? Batman without the Joker? Holmes without Moriarty? Every champion needs an arch rival. This arch rival keeps him on his toes, keeps him on the edge, keeps him alive. You are this arch rival. Do not despair for although the arch rival almost always loses in the end, he is just as important as the hero himself. Because this arch rival is the only reason why the hero wakes up every morning actually feeling alive.  

I know despair. I know how it feels to have fallen over and over again, fought and fought and fucking fought and can NEVER get what you want. I don't know how it feels to be doing it for the first ever medal for our country, but I know how it feels to be doing it for myself. 

This set us apart from each other. This is the reason why you're there and we, mortal humans, sit here and watch as you fight valiantly. You lost again. But you won, again. Because nobody else can go this far.  

If her sport was in the Games, it would be the both of you. Then maybe you'll feel a little less pressure, you'll feel a little less like puking from the nerves. But it's not, so you're all we have. You always fought like a God. Not because you were great from the beginning, but because every time you face him you are better than you were before. That is God in my eyes. 

There will be no story for those who come, win, and leave. There will be no immortality for a hero without his greatest foe constantly chasing him down. You have achieved immortality. People will talk about you, about how you kept fighting and kept falling just inches behind. People know that real life is never as beautiful as the stories. Not everyone wins. But life is also never just about winning. Life is about fighting. The complacent who stay in their comfort areas and tell everyone their lives are complete, they don't know shit. 

If you go on, do this for yourself. Don't carry too much weight this time. Look into his eyes and take him down, for yourself. Everything else will fall into place. We may have a holiday, we may have free food, they don't matter. What matters is you. 

Don't get me wrong. I have not gotten renewed faith in you, I've not taken a liking for you and your game. Although it's nice to watch, I don't like it any more than I did before. But I know that while taking the road less traveled, I'm not easily inspired. But for this brief moment I am. The thing with people who fail too much is that they have too many reasons not to get back up after a fall. I am inspired by your relentless desire to achieve, by the little time you take on the ground, by how quickly you get yourself back up.