During the past couple of weeks, Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Gay has written a couple of terrific pieces about the losers of major sporting events.
A Loser’s Winning Moment
Rafael Nadal’s Grace Helps Him Shine in the Shadow of Wimbledon Champ Novak Djokovic
Winning is easy. Everybody adores you! Soak in that cheap applause, hold that trophy high, blow a smooch to your agent, your manager, your stylist, your chef, your landscape architect and even your own parents. Sign that multimillion-dollar endorsement deal; buy a cheesy new suit and make Letterman chuckle; get linked to a woozy starlet; make a B movie with a has-been action star; record a vanity album with melodies that make dogs hide under tables.
But do you really want to prove yourself, to be all-time and great? Learn to lose. Lose beautifully, with class and humility. Lose like Rafael Nadal.
You should read the whole column, but here is Gay’s conclusion:
“Today wasn’t possible,” Nadal said. “I tried my best, as always. Today, one player played better than me. I will try another time, next year.”
Nadal did it perfectly. He made it about Djokovic and not himself. He didn’t sulk or remind everyone that the next morning they would wake up with the same lives and same problems. It was the type of postgame interview that made you want to turn to an impressionable young athlete and say, “See that? Hear that? That is how it is done.”
That’s also how a postgame column is done.
A Year’s Worth of Nerves in a Day
The U.S. Women’s Team Falls to Japan, but No One Can Deny the Thrill of the World Cup Final
Nut graf:
It had everything. It lifted you and crushed you and wore you out. Over 90 tense minutes of regular time and 30 tenser minutes of extra time it went. Anxiety, exhilaration, jubilation, despair. Every emotion bloomed and bottomed. The nerves of an entire sports season felt compressed into a few hours on one July day.
Gay notes that the U.S. women’s soccer bandwagon formed in just a week, then turned into a roller-coaster ride:
Every premature celebration was extinguished. Celebrate? There was hardly a second to breathe. This World Cup final gave as much as a game can give. Because the U.S. women captivated so many of us, because they brought us in and thrilled us, the pain from this one will linger. The U.S. team wasn’t perfect. Mistakes were made, defensive lapses were punished. And the shootout: Three misses in a row? Really?
Again, read the whole piece. But again, Gay’s conclusion:
[E]ven in a loss, we got something indelible. Sunday’s game will stick with everyone who watched. It won’t be as iconic and joyful as Chastain’s shirt-tossing victory celebration in Pasadena, but it’s just as vivid.
We will remember this team for what it left on the field. That wasn’t the dream, but that’s all anyone can ask.
Can’t ask much more from a sports column, either.
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