ICC 7 Calgary 2010

I haven't been selected for the Games...13th today sealed my fate! The start house was charged with emotions from athletes around the globe who all had different criteria to qualify themselves for an Olympic spot - for some it was to finish top 60 in the World, for others they had to win the race! Qualifying for the Olympics always contains an element of luck as forces outside your control contribute to dictating your results i.e. how other athletes do, internal politics etc! It would make more sense to me to take the top 25 athletes in the World and then include a further 8 'smaller' nations so as to have the best athletes at the Olympics whilst still including everybody!
I always promised myself that I would include this quote from Theodore Roosevelt, however I did and whatever the result, in this decisive blog entry. It is for all those athletes who are daring greatly and keeping the essential Olympic message alive whether they make it or not!

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Next week is the last ICC race in Park City - so although it won't count for Olympic selection I will try to represent myself in the best light and finish the season on a high!