I was going to write about Ash Barty this week as her performance at the Australian Open was phenomenal – but then along came the Winter Olympics and the snowboarders competing in the women’s slopestyle final.
They truly blew me away.
Every single one of them.
Not only did they display amazing athleticism, skill, daring and lots of death defying tricks, but their display of sportsmanship was nothing I’ve ever witnessed before.
For those of you who missed it (or who saw it and are happy to relive it!), Aussie and US snowboarders Tess Coady and Julia Marino were sitting in line for bronze and silver medals respectively after outstanding runs. Together they watched a run like no other as gold medal contender, Kiwi, Zoi Sadowski Synnott burst through the gates and rode every rail, performed every trick and hit every mark to pull off an almost perfect score of 92.88.
She’d won gold and the crowd erupted.
But her competitors went truly nuts! Tess and Julia threw themselves at Zoi in a congratulatory “stacks on”, all ending up on the ground, elated that their mate and competitor had just laid down the run of her life to win gold.
They were soon joined by all 8 competitors and ended up in a massive jumping scrum, all celebrating Zoi’s run and her win.
Never before have I ever seen anything like it.
In the interviews after the medal ceremony, they all talked about how Zoi is the best and how she pushes them to be better. She shows them what can be done and they want to follow her. They want to learn from her.
They weren’t envious, jealous, ego driven or disappointed in their 2nd, 3rd or even 8th place. They were genuinely delighted that someone had stepped up and shown them and the world what can be done in this event.
What #kickass young women they all are.
I think I’d burst with pride if I was their mum or their coach – or their neighbour – or if I just knew any one of them.
And to Tess Coady. What a legend you are. The first Aussie medal winner for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and the first Aussie woman to win a medal in this event. Your performance on the run was outstanding. Your performance at the bottom of the run extraordinary.
I salute you, as does most of Australia who saw or heard of your display of ultimate sportsmanship.
So many lessons we can all learn from this!
