HUMAN NATURE + TECHONOLOGY + COMPETITION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbVn9cVez08 

I have to confess that I did not watch five minutes of the Olympic Games this past Summer.  My brain was occupied by too many other things.  Still is.  One of the interesting stories to come out of the great international meet is beginning to come home to me and it makes me think about human nature in ways that I have considered before, but with added elements this time.  It is the element of an elite, world class athlete, and others in his class, whose legs have either been amputated or have never developed.  Over the years, prosthetic legs have taken on some much more esthetic tones than the ones shown on the right, but those that you see here are the tools of the world class runner.  This is a marriage between nature and technology, about which, more later.

I think one of the reasons why I did not want to watch the olympic competition this year was mainly because I cannot bring myself to care about the minute difference that separates the winner from the loser at this level.  I cannot get accustomed to the fact that the fellow in the picture lost a race to a rival from Brazil by 0.07 of one second.  The winner ran 200 meters in 21.45 seconds.  (260 yards)  That is rather impressive.  
What is somewhat more impressive is that this fellow, Oscar Pistorius from South Africa qualified for the regular olympics, not just the para-olympics.  He did very well against the athletes in the regular olympics but could not prevail.  
As I was reading about this today, I wondered about the ability of humans to go beyond the threshold of "adapting" in order to reach levels of accomplishment that many fellow human beings cannot begin to imagine as being possible.  We admire it in fully "equipped" humans and we shake our heads in a greater level of awe when we witness it happening in those who are not fully "equipped."  Some of it is technology, but I am convinced that the human spirit goes beyond the technology and conducts us to the upper levels of achievement.  
As I was reading this, I had pictures in my mind of alpine skiers who have been blessed with ever improving technology for many years now.  Imagine, their sport measures winning and losing times in decimals of four places.  I ask myself if these athletes can really sense time that is that thinly sliced?  Every time I think of this, I have Franz Klammer the flamboyant Austrian skier who litterally flew down the mountain in the 1970's to win the gold for his country in the downhill competition.

Franz Klammer dominated the world of downhill skiing during the mid-1970s and over the course of his career, he won an unprecedented 26 World Cup races. But his finest hour indisputably came during the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria when he dramatically responded to the pressure of the home fans and won the Olympic downhill by 0.33 of a second.

See, I remembered.  I cannot forget.  We all thought that he was going to die.  But he didn't, and everyone still remembers.  If you watch the winter olympics in 2014, you stand a chance of seeing this historic run.  No one had ever pushed himself that close to the edge before.  It's a pleasure just thinking about it.  Please note that they were keeping time with only two decimals back then.

Back to the "Blade Runners."  Right now they cannot defeat the "able bodied" humans.  Will they ever reach that point?  Is it a question of technology or a question of human body mechanics?  Right now, we don't know.  Maybe someday we will.  Those of you who are younger than I am stand the chance of finding out.

I now put a human element into this whole thing.  Oscar Pistorius was defeated by the runner Oliveira from Brazil in an upset.  NO ONE in the entire stadium expected it.  Oliveira came from behind and made up a wide gap before nosing out Pistorius.  Now, these runners cannot stick their nose out as far as the guys with two entire working legs, but I did see a little leaning there and it was enough to bring home the bacon for the Brazilian.  Pistorius has been the "unbeatable" one for a long time.  His post race behavior has been somewhat less than galant.  I know how he feels.  I also have felt and observed enough winning and losing in my life to feel the vibes of those who come in second.  Personally, I prefer to come in last, totally outclassed, than to lose by 0.07 of one second.  That would crush me too.  Such is life.
Technology and a bunch of other stuff aside, I have observed something else.  Πάντα Ρει [Nothing stays the same forever.]  Everyone gets over-matched sooner or later.  Every human knows it. I haven't met one or observed one who has ever prepared for it.  Now that it has happened to Oscar, it is the moment for him to start getting used to it.  Now is now the time to mourn.  Now is the time to go on to bigger and better things.  
It's easy for me to say, old man sitting here at my desk pontificating.  I am blessed that there is no one close by who can betray my lack of authority on matters of learning how to lose.   So, I'm quitting while I'm ahead.