Editor's note: “The Spoken Word” is shared each Sunday during the weekly Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast. This will be given Aug. 7, 2016.
It has been said that “life does not determine winners. Winners determine life” (see “A Pattern in All Things,” by Marvin J. Ashton, Ensign, November 1990). Most true winners have “lost” at some point in life. They have been hurt and disappointed; they have experienced setbacks and sorrow, but they do not let these difficulties determine their destiny or define their lives.
Instead, they strive to rise above their challenges and keep moving forward one day at a time. In fact, it is very often the defeats, just as much as the victories, that bring out the greatness in a true champion.
One reason we love sports so much is that they provide countless inspiring examples of this very truth.
Grantland Rice, a legendary sportswriter from the previous century, spent more than 50 years observing and writing eloquently about the wins and losses, the triumphs and failures of great athletes. In his poem "Alumnus Football," he wrote these words that have been paraphrased by parents and coaches so often that they have become a familiar motto of athletic competition everywhere:
“When the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes — not that you won or lost — but how you played the Game.”
Every two years the world gathers in celebration of sport to witness world-class athletes compete in the Olympic Games. While the medal count is interesting to follow, what really grabs the heart are the personal stories of the athletes — their hard work, persistence, dedication and teamwork. Every one, it seems, faced challenges that could have tempted them to give up and give in, but they discovered — as we all must — that the key to a winning life is to keep going.
Every Olympic athlete is a living reminder that if we can rise when we fall, pick ourselves up when life knocks us down and continue on when it seems easier to quit, we will see in time that winning is not as much about talent or luck as it is about grit and perseverance. Winners and champions just keep trying. This thought is expressed well in the Olympic creed: “The most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well” (see "The Olympic Symbols," 2nd ed., 2007).
Tuning in ...
The “Music and the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL TV, KSL Radio 1160 AM/102.7 FM, ksl.com, KSL X-stream, BYU-TV, BYU Radio, BYU-TV International, CBS Radio Network, Dish Network, DirecTV, Sirius XM Radio (Channel 143), mormontabernaclechoir.org and youtube.com/mormontabchoir. The program is aired live at 9:30 a.m. MDT on many of these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.org/schedules.