外国语学院2001级4班  阴小蓓

With a warm closing ceremony, the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games have bidden a final farewell to the athletes and all the spectators in the world.

Looking back to these days of Olympic Games, I’ve been treated to frenetic pace during many matches, especially the final of the Chinese women volleyball team against the Russian, which was tough and fantastic, making millions of people burst into tears. It was marvelous that after trailing two sets down, the Chinese team, without its “backbone”--Zhao Ruirui, could come from behind, trounced the Russian and claimed the title. Although the Chinese team was under great pressure, all the members displayed immense calmness and wisdom and achieved the final success. Now, the women volleyball team’s spirits, which were oblivious for nearly 20 years, become a topical subject again. The Chinese history of development witnessed the old Chinese women team spirits applauded by the public at the beginning of the 1980s, which give the whole nation great encouragement and let the whole world realize--- China was embracing rapid development; China was brave enough to strive for a better future and can surpass developed countries in all the other aspects with invincible spirits. However, from 1985, since the women volleyball team couldn’t keep their satisfactory performances, the volleyball spirits nearly disappeared from the public.

Several days ago, I read an article titled “ The Return of Women Volleyball Spirit”, which kept me pondering. Admittedly, the Chinese women volleyball team is highlighted again in this Olympics because it has returned to the top of the volleyball world and standing at the top of the Olympic podium after 20 years, where fame, fortune and recognition reside. However, drawing the attention from fantastic scenes of jubilation and thinking about the women volleyball spirits we could find: If a team or an athlete achieves excellent results in competitions, there is always a spirit publicized while if they slip back as time goes by, the spirit is seldom mentioned again. It is quite ridiculous to publicize a spirit according to their excellent performance on the stadium, for if so, the spirit cannot be permanent and will disappear one day undoubtedly.

In this Athens Olympics, there were many prominent sport spirits exhibited on the athletic ground, such as Liu Xiang’s 110-metres hurdles and Wang Yifu’s shooting… Every gold medal was a manifestation of sport spirits. However, quite a large number of athletes also exhibit valuable sport spirits although they didn’t get gold medals. Wang Hao and Yao Ming’s invincible spirit was quite convincing. Besides, some athletes were facing a reality more cruel than this two. They had experienced the hardships and devoted their whole youth to sports, but they’ve never achieved the satisfactory results the day they leave the athlete group. In fact, from these people, we can also see the valuable Olympic spirits-- it is their perseverant, invincible and magnanimous characteristics.

In conclusion, while lavishing our praises on successful individual athletes, we should also value the support of the whole athlete group. Determining a spirit only by triumph is too vulgar and too absurd, which is not the essence of the sport spirit.