another sam chan: the student blogger

It’s hard to imagine Michael Phelps as an underdog. For those that don’t know, some quick wikipeding will tell you that he currently holds 6 world record times in Men’s Swimming. He is arguably the best (most gifted and talented didn’t seem to cut it) athlete in the world today and aspires to break former US swimming great Mark Spitz’s record of 7 Olympic Gold Medals. Only the best of the best get Olympic gold. Check it out: athletes such as Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, and Wilt Chamberlain don’t own one – this guy wants 8 more after winning 6 in Athens four years ago. However, France had proven to be the favourites in the 4x100m Men’s Freestyle Relay, boasting swimmers who’s names are only paid attention to by those who follow the sport. All that you, as a casual reader need to know is that France not only boasted the World Record Holder Alain Bernard for the Individual 100m (4 laps in your community pool, 2 laps in an olympic sized pool) Freestyle, he also had this to say prior to the races:

“The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for, I’ll start my Games in the 4×100 metres freestyle relay final, confident that my pals will have qualified easily. If the relay goes according to plans, than we’ll be on a roll.”

While the French were big talkers, they were not without skills to back it up and were the heavy favourites with three sprinters on the team. As amazing as Phelps can be, he cannot be four people. However, this blog is not about Michael Phelps. In fact, this isn’t even about swimming or the United States. This is about resilience and will power. This is what the Olympics are all about.

At 32 and past the prime age of average swimmers, Jason Lezak (Jay-suhn Lay-see-ak for many Chinese) has suddenly become the sound coming out of millions of mouths. Starting almost a full body length behind Frenchman and WR holder Alain Bernard, he front-crawled all the back to finger tip past him for the Gold Medal, World Record, and respect of the world. It seemed impossible and looked even worse as Lezak played catchup to the closest thing we have on earth to a 6’5 human fish. He never gave up hope, even when many others did, and was rewarded with defying the laws of physics and an unofficial world record at 46.06 – almost half a second faster than anybody else, ever. Look no further than the sheer joy on Michael Phelps face. He is ecstatic because he knows that this isn’t about him. This is greater than him (and he’s pretty great). This is the inspiration for anybody who wanted something more than anything else and succeeded out of pure will. The Olympics are important for the world because they show that it is not always the famous, the talented, the richest that win – it is those who show the most heart.

As for my mother country, Canada? Well, Brent Hayden certainly showed heart when he gave up his own individual race to focus on the same medley as Phelps, Bernard, and Lezak. The lead off man on the race, he had his own personal best at 47.56 – a mere .05 behind Phelps and tapped in at 3rd. However, the rest of the team did not make good use of his sacrifice, finishing 6th in the race. After three days, Canada has accumulated the same amount of medals in Beijing as the number of medals sitting in my closet: zero.

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In movies, there’s always a main character. Well, I shouldn’t say always, but those movies without a specific main character usually suck so I disregarded those in my statement. I’ve noticed that there’s always the same movie flow:

Phase 0

A – MC has been doing well with his/her life so far, experiencing success without having to undergo hardship in the past.
or
B – MC life sucks.

Phase 1:
Something (such as a spider) or someone (usually somebody hot, or a dumb kid) alters MC’s life.

Phase 2:
As a result of Phase 1, MC has new previously unforeseen goals and changes attitude.

Phase 2b:
MC undergoes hardship to meet those goals but always peserveres and breaks through.

Phase 3:
MC is met with waves of success and briefly feels like the top of the world until

Phase 4:
A: something from the MC’s past comes back to haunt him/her
or
B: A trap is set by the antagonist
which results in
the MC falling into a deeper hole than ever before seen.

Phase 5:
the MC crawls out of the hole, battered, bruised, but rises higher than ever and takes over their world.

Phase 6:
A: MC wins/lives happily ever after, with ever after being the last 30 seconds of the film
or
B: dies with pride, thus effectively ending the film (anybody seen crank?)

What I want to emphasize on is Phase 2B, the part where the MC works hard, peserveres and gets rewarded for it. The reason it is 2B and not 3, is because it is always a few short cut scenes, where they show that “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. You see it in Legally Blonde with Elle and her books, you see it in Mighty Ducks when the guys finally start to play as a team, and you see it in Coach Carter when the guys run lap after lap after lap, followed by 1000 pushups.  Like many other movie watchers, I always put myself into character when I watch movies and I see how they succeed…and think I can do the same thing. However, for the most of us, the majority of our lives are those few short scenes where we have to work hard and persevere. The MC always makes it look so easy, so smooth, so natural, where in reality, its a gruesome struggle. Sure makes me wonder if happily ever after is worth it, or is that a fantasy too?

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