Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.
I don’t particularly respect professional athletes. I appreciate their skills, am thrilled when they win, but that’s where it stops.
I respect people who try to make a difference.
Years ago our footballers were overpaid divas, arrested for driving big fat cars unnecessarily fast, and so on.
Now they’re decent young men who can be seen out and about helping their communities, encouraging kids, and generally behaving rather well.
Marcus Rashford heard that children weren’t getting enough to eat, and he immediately took action to help. They quietly do quite a lot.
They also try to set a good example, and mainly succeed. Their play is mainly clean. They’re up against a lot of pressure, a lot of it from our former losing footballers who rarely if ever reached a final.
They store and dedication to the have and community is the sort of thing that I admire.
However, when I look at our Para-athletes I am filled with awe. One lady was so badly beaten by a partner that she is paralysed from the chest down and still suffers terrible problems. She loved sport. What was her response?
To find a sport where she only needed her arms. Archery. She’s in the Paralympics right now.
I see those athletes missing limbs, suffering from hidden disabilities, blind. Fighting back.
I don’t admire them though. It goes beyond that, I’m in awe. They must inspire so many people to think about what they can do, including the able bodied.
They’re also highly valuable on the subject of “you don’t look disabled”. One of our athletes had a relapse of her MS within seconds of starting a cycle race. She fell off within metres, and that was her done.
Tragic as that was for her, bless her, it was a sad demonstration of the truth of hidden disabilities.
Making a difference
Money, possessions, success, they’re all very nice, but what counts is the difference you make to this world. Enhance or destroy. Mentally or physically. With weapons, fists, or words.
As such I admire athletes who get out there and make a difference. but I admire anyone who does.
I admire writers, authors and bloggers, musicians and artists, anyone who tries to bring beauty, harmony, and something good into the world.
Keep writing!
Happy Saturday
Deb xx
Deb Hawken - Amorah 