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What have we learnt from sport in 2024?

1. Hard work and dedication pay off

The Paris 2024 Olympic Tennis gold medal match was the battle of the generations. 37-year-old Novak Djokovic, who has won a grand total of twenty-four grand slams, versus 21 year old Carlos Alcaraz, who has already won four grand slams and is grabbing the world’s attention. It was set to be a showdown. Carlos was at his first Olympic Games, whilst Novak was at his fourth. Paris 2024 was to be his final shot at Olympic glory. He had won all the grand slams multiple times, but the Olympic gold medal had continued to evade him.

So, when he beat Carlos in straight sets, he fell to his knees and let all the emotions out. He had finally done it. The gold medal was around his neck! Djokovic has dedicated his life to tennis and his hard work paid off.

2. Sometimes, your best just isn’t enough

Yes, we have to talk about this. Against Italy, at Wembley, on penalties. Against Spain, in Germany. England’s men lose in a Euro’s final for the second time in a row. But should this be seen as an utter failure? To me, getting to a final is not a failure. Of course, we would all love to watch the Lions lift a major trophy, but for the meantime, we sometimes have to accept that sometimes, your best isn’t enough. The Lionesses lost the World Cup Final in 2023 to Spain, and whilst I was gutted, I was also so proud of them. Sometimes, you can’t give any more and you couldn’t have worked any harder. And that is okay. It is okay to do everything you possibly can to prepare and still not achieve your goals. It happens sometimes in life. It is okay to fail. What matters is how you respond to failure.

3. Never give up

In the last few minutes of the men’s Olympic triathlon, Alex Yee was going to get silver- he was stuck behind New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde. He didn’t look in any position to catch him, either, but, suddenly, Yee put his foot on the pedal and stepped it up a gear. He pushed forward. He gained momentum and overtook Wilde. He got the gold medal. If Alex Yee had just accepted that gold was out of his reach, then he would indeed have won the silver medal. But he persevered, he did not settle for silver, and he won. One simple lesson: Never, ever, ever give up. Because it is hard to beat someone who never gives up, and you are not defeated when you lose, you are defeated when you give up.

4. Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do something

(Iona Winnifrith, silver Paralympic swimming medalist at aged 13)

Iona Winnifrith was the youngest member of ParalympicsGB at Paris 2024 and is now a Paralympic silver medalist in her discipline of 100m breaststroke SB7. And guess what? She is only thirteen years old! At thirteen, would you ever imagine winning an Olympic medal? I certainly didn’t! She has been resilient, both in the pool and outside of it, and this has earned her an accolade that most can only dream of. The lesson I take from this is: Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do something. You make that decision for yourself.

If you liked this article and want to hear more, check out @tash_talker1 on Instagram! 

Also, see other articles from me below.

By Natasha Callis
 
Photo credit: Jan van der Wolf via Pexels

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