Not the Triumph, But the Struggle?

The Olympic Creed states that:

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Oscar Pistorius would attest to that creed, perhaps better than any Athlete who will be allowed to compete in Beijing this summer. So it’s a shame that a couple of Italian Olympic officials missed a golden opportunity Monday during Pistorius’ visit to Milan to exemplify those ideals by pleading the South African sprinter’s case to the heartless, elitist IAAF. The Associated Press reports that a couple of IOC members instead stated that “the IOC had no jurisdiction in the dispute and it was up to the governing body to issue technical standards.”One of the Officials did concede that the “current rules were written with able-bodied athletes in mind and did not take into account a ‘phenomenon’ like Pistorius.” That doesn’t sound like much of a struggle, much of a fight, to me.

Even if the IOC doesn’t have actual jurisdiction in technical matters, they certainly have the power of the bully pulpit, should they desire to use it against the IAAF’s egregiously discriminatory ruling that a double-amputee somehow has an an advantage over two-legged sprinters.

Shouldn’t the governing body of a movement live by its own creed? Shouldn’t it require that the governing bodies that partner with the movement also abide by that same creed? Otherwise, those words are meaningless. For his part, Pistorius has all-but given up the fight for Beijing. The larger struggle, however, the one for equality for disabled people, continues. Pistorius has set his sights on 2012 and the London Games. After all, isn’t that (according to the Olympic Creed) “the essential thing?”

Source: [USA Today]