The Emotional Side Of Sport
Just days remaining for me here in Samoa and I’m doing my best to savour every moment I’m awake, which usually extends to 18 or 19 hours each day. I feel in some way that I have connected with the locals and their culture, so it will be an emotional farewell when the time arrives.
There is still so much I want to do and thankfully I’ve been given the opportunity to stay in Samoa until next Tuesday, so look out Teuila Festival, here comes the Aussie!
I think some of my SportingPulse colleagues are also primed for the festival and the chance to let their hair down after what has been a busy period for the company, a feeling that is shared by everyone involved with the Games.
I’m sure the next five days will generate plenty of celebration. All deserved too.
I continue to meet some wonderful people each day from all walks of life, all drawn together to play their role in SPG and I really do believe that the people of Apia probably won’t fully appreciate the amazing job they have done until we have all left.
I found out yesterday that approximately 39,000 people live in Apia. I was stunned, that’s the amount of people who live in my suburb back at home! Believe me when I say that we could never do what you have done on the back of 39,000 residents.
Out at the football on Wednesday I enjoyed my most emotional game in the commentary box as New Caledonia scored in the final seconds of play to beat Solomon Islands in a pulsating semi-final, 3-2.
The game had absolutely everything. Sensational goals, two red cards and the ups and downs that only sport can deliver in the space of a single contest. Adrenalin is just as important for commentators as it is for players, and mate was I sitting on cloud nine!
Watching the emotions unfold in front of me got me to thinking about some of the other emotional attachments we have all enjoyed here in Samoa. The list is long, and it continues to grow. Again, we may not fully appreciate it until life returns to normal in the weeks and months ahead.
I still have a tear in my eye when I think about Fijian youngster Akesa Drotini. She has won the hearts of many with her now famous run in the women’s 5000-metre race, where the 14-year old sent emotions rocketing with her bare-foot performance.
When I think about Ryan Pini and Lara Grangeon in the pool, just to name a couple of the big medal winners, and the likes of Samoa’s Opeloge family, Aunese Curreen and Emma Hunter. How can those names and their performances not bring a tear to your eye or make your heart pump a little quicker?
Emotions are a tangible side of sport that can take you on a rollercoaster ride like no other. Up and down, left and right, you can physically walk away from an event and feel so proud, yet so drained of energy and so emotionally charged.
It matters not that when I talk about the Opeloge family back in Melbourne that nobody will know who I’m talking about because the memories I’ll take away from Samoa are more than enough to remind me of how spectacular this event has been.
I must have looked a little silly (not for the first time!) at the football and boxing this week when, right in the middle of the action, I’ve turned away from what’s taking place out on the pitch and in the ring to watch the emotion sweeping through the crowd.
You just can’t describe the uplifting feeling you get when you see men, women and children being swept up in the moment. Just by writing this I hope that the memories of these events are again being lived out in each one of you.
For some of the children in the crowd these games are probably the biggest event they have ever attended, actually the majority of the adults would be in that group as well.
The tagline used at these Games – Live The Dream – has become one of the best and most accurate promotional lines I’ve heard at a large event. It’s timely, it impacts greatly on everyone involved and it depicts a region of the world that needs to do just that, Live The Dream.
I know that like all professional event management and organising groups, the powers that be will conduct a review of these Games in the near future and there will be good, bad and indifferent reports.
You’ll never please 100 per cent of the people 100 per cent of the time. That’s life.
I’d like to add my little bit for any forthcoming report and hopefully it is seen as the opinion of someone who has come in from the outside with very little knowledge or understanding of the competition in the Pacific region.
Samoa is the first nation I have visited in the Pacific, it is by far and away the smallest country I have been to and, in terms of infrastructure, it is still catching up in many areas.
Please, take it from a visitor brought here to do a job at the Games and one who has tried to watch, listen and learn as much as possible. The performance by the people of Samoa, the organisers of the Games and the enormous number of additional staff and volunteers has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Yes, it’s easy to get emotional watching athletes do their thing, but it is equally emotional to stand amongst the supporters, talk with the volunteers and walk amongst the locals and see just how much this event has made a difference to their lives.
Before I head out to another day of action, I really wanted to also mention the importance of family in Samoa. You all amaze me with how tight-knit each family is. We just don’t enjoy the same pride, passion and commitment within the family unit back in Australia.
I guess that’s why I’ve also seen so much pride, passion and commitment at these Games, it’s in your blood, it’s what you know. Best of all I now have the emotional side of this fantastic event to take home with me as well. Thank you.
