We have two very interesting examples of how and how not to lose from the Olympics. One from judo and one from wrestling. The atheletes’ responses are quite different.
Former Olympic and world judo champion Keiji Suzuki said he felt “empty” and was considering his future in the sport after suffering a humiliating -100kg first round defeat at the Beijing Games on Thursday.”I didn’t do what I wanted to. I couldn’t use any of my techniques. I have nothing left,” a tearful Suzuki said after he was defeated by Mongolia’s Naidan Tuvshinbayar with a tackle throw (morote-gari).
“If I step onto the tatami again, I may probably be thrown again. I’m really empty now,” he said. (Full story here.)
I note that he was defeated in that match by the supposedly un-Japanese-like double leg takedown (Morote-gari). That’s going to cause a stir, you can bet. I said here that Japan was willing to borrow from Western wrestling, but that seems to have only gone so far and is very controversial in some circles.
Abrahamian threw down his 84kg greco-roman bronze in disgust after his shot at gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as “politics”.
Abrahamian took the medal from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the mat before storming off.
The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by team-mates earlier as a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semi-final bout with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on to the take gold. (Full story here.)
I feel for Suzuki but not for Abrahamian. Suzuki’s pain is palpable to me, but the wrestler’s isn’t. He lost and then got his revenge by taking it out on the judges. Notice how one response points to the interior and the psychological and the other response is exterior and physical. Interesting from a Jungian POV.
What do you guys and gals think?
13 responses so far ↓
1 Patrick Parker // Aug 15, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Here’s what I think about abrahamian…
http://www.mokurendojo.com/2008/08/3rd-best-88kg-wrestler-in-world-is.html
as for the other guy, i think that is heart-wrenching. obsessive - but in an understandable way. I have wondered how losing athletes would fare in less free societies where you compete to eat (the way Rhadi said Cuba’s woman’s program was).
2 David // Aug 15, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Suzuki’s comment of “I didn’t do what I wanted to do” illuminates why he lost. You can’t be worried about techniques and what’s going to happen and expect yourself to be able to respond to what is happening.
3 J.K.S // Aug 15, 2008 at 9:26 pm
As for Suzuki and the morote gari, I couldn’t help but notice that Kyuzo Mifune was going all over the place with the pick-ups in that Judo film on google video. We can all rest easy, the Kodokan will still be standing tomorrow.
4 neijia // Aug 15, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I don’t really know what to make of Suzuki and Abrahamian’s responses. I’m happy for Mongolia to win its first gold medal ever, though.
5 Jay Gischer // Aug 15, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I feel confident that in the end Suzuki will learn from the incident. He’s not rejecting the experience, though it tries him severely. That’s judo, the path of bending. Abrhamian will not learn anything from the experience. He will feel he got screwed over to the end of his days. Probably that means a couple of points to his blood pressure. Which life do you want?
6 William // Aug 16, 2008 at 1:36 am
A better approach to a loss is to think that it is just a learning experience, one more step in the path of any figther.
7 Steven // Aug 17, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Suzuki, by display self-pity and self-loathing, conjures in the (average) watcher sympathy and concern.
Abrahamian, with rage and anger, conjures contempt and scorn.
Both offer visions of men struggling with emotions regarding loss.
8 wayne hansen // Aug 18, 2008 at 5:18 am
both show the petulant attitude of todays pampered sportsmen, more celebrity than warrior.
9 DavidK // Aug 18, 2008 at 9:40 am
I felt no sympathy for Suzuki. You run the risk of losing every time you compete. He is totally overreacting. This may be a Japanese response to failure, I dunno, but it is unmanly and not befitting a warrior.
You have to be able to walk away and move on without hesitation…that is the discipline.
10 graculus // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:57 pm
With regards to Suzuki, crying is a culturally accepted response to losing (and winning) sports events in Japan. It’s not part of my culture, but it used to be… in 18th and 19th century England, for example, openly crying in public did not have the same stigma it does today. Indeed, given the right circumstances, it was seen as ‘manly’.
However, I preferred Ishii (winner of the openweight gold medal) ’s build up and response. Although the new face on the team, he had made an effort to learn from the new ‘international’ techniques. He was clear before the tournament that he was not going to get stuck doing old-fashioned judo for the sake of it. When he was asked about how he felt about Suzuki’s defeat, the evening before his own matches, he said he was glad, because if he won, it would make him look like more of a hero!
Now that’s a breath of fresh air in Japan!
11 DavidK // Aug 19, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Ain’t nothing wrong with crying, although there are many ways one can go about it. It’s all the whinging about losing and being empty. Again, if that is some sort of culturally defined hyperbole than it says more about Japanese culture than Suzuki.
12 Joseph T. Oliva Arriola // Aug 19, 2008 at 11:32 pm
“BEIJING – Shawn Johnson had spent a week smiling her way through the gymnastics hall. No close defeat, no age controversy, no puzzled judges score could stop her. Where human nature said her face should relay some of her internal emotions – disappointment, frustration – she just kept smiling.
Tuesday she beamed after beam.”
If we are judging “how a man should react under pressure…if we are judging how a champion should react by cultural standards”, Shawn Johnson is a better man than me.
I train my children not to be “bad losers” and I teach them to control their emotions. But, I have certainly been guilty of “emotionally investing” myself in games and competitions where I couldn’t control my emotions.
Graculus makes a good point as to how “culturally accepted behavior” changes as the values of the society change. For instance, when one says “thank you” to a barrista at Starbucks the answer is usually “no problem” and not thank you.
To me, “no problem,” means “no skin off my nose” and “your welcome sir” means I provided “service” for you my valued customer. (oh well!!!)
I make judgements and risk being called “judgmental”, an “elitist” and undemocratic. Thirty years ago I would have said the judo and wrestling players reacted “poorly and disrespectful”
With a little “experience” from a few years, I know see the judo player and the wrestler in a different light. (I was them at different phases of my life. Yet, I still aspire to be “smiling” through the frustration like the great woman champion Shawn Johnson.)
13 neijia // Aug 20, 2008 at 2:00 am
Some people argue that any “sport” that is based purely on human judging to decide on winners is not a sport in the same way that, say, swimming is a sport because high tech equipment can remove the human subjectivity and bias to determine, for example, that Phelps won a race by 1/100th of a second.
For some more performance art-ish competitions like gymnastics, there isn’t really a solution. That’s just the nature of the game. Some people might say Johnson has more grace due in part to being younger, having more years left to compete at this level, being less burdened, etc. but also because gymnastics is based more purely on subjectivity and everyone knows that. Further, we could say that the competitors are really competing against themselves.
In judo and wrestling, there is some element of near-objectivity and of course one takes on an opponent one at a time with a clear winner and loser. Given Suzuki admitted he failed to learn from previous lessons against double legs and shoulder wheels - he really should feel bad at his lack of sufficient preparation against these tactics. I think we’d all feel bad. In gymnastics, if you did your best and someone else did better, how could you possibly feel bad about?
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