Thursday, December 13, 2007

A Fine Line...

I saw this posted on another blog the other day. On that blog the story was used to illustrate dedication and courage necessary in sport. I can see this. Unfortunately, my initial reaction after seeing the video was one of sadness and disbelief. I think I felt this way largely because of the attitudes of the parent quoted in the story and the coach. The cause of this girl's injury is overtraining (common in cross country in general and girls in particular). As a coach some responsibility must be acknowledged because an athlete under her guidance suffered a tragic, painful injury which was both preventable and common. As a parent, watching my daughter drag her broken body across a finish line is probably not going to illicit pride as my primary emotion. Concern. Anger. Fear. Yes fear. But not pride. That isn't even in the top 25 emotions on my list watching his daughter crawl across the line. If you watch the vid, be warned it is quite graphic...

The story can be found here

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