Medals

My posts have been a little negative of late, a trait I want to avoid. So with this post I want to talk about something I have for a long time seen as a negative, but is turning around to be a positive.


I stopped collecting my medals from races years ago. I just had too many and the medals themselves were meaningless, it was the effort, the performance and the memories that were important and a piece of metal doesn't encapsulate that to me.

Over time, I came to despise my medals. You see, so long as I was competing in "age group" races, I wasn't particularly proud of my results. There were hundreds of people out there better than me and I wasn't really putting in a complete effort with my training, so I shouldn't have been proud either. One medal that I can't stand is my finishers medal from the Gold Coast World Championships in 2009. I gave it to my mother for all the hard work she'd put into getting me to training and races, physically and financially.

I have started to collect a few medals that have captured a little moment that I am proud of. I won't detail them as it's not important to the story.

I have a very valuable use for the medals now in my teaching pursuits. When I teach the younger grades (ages 5-8), I use the medals as incentives. I begin the class by explaining that I am not their regular teacher and that I don't have the same rewards/punishment system as them, that I have my own. Mine exists as such:

• "If you are working correctly, working to a high standard, working quietly and leading by example, or being a "peacemaker", then I will reward you by letting you wear one of the medals for a little while."
• "If you choose to not follow instructions by the time I turn back around, then you are choosing for me to write your name on the board to help me pick up rubbish at lunchtime." I then give them a five second countdown, by which time if they can't follow that, they probably deserve to get used to the idea of picking up rubbish.

This works a treat for me and it works for the same reason I still pursue sport. Do you remember when you were a kid that if you met an "athlete" it was a big deal? It didn't matter what the athlete competed in or what standard they were, if someone called them an athlete or they were an adult and did sport, you usually did the rest in your own head and figured they were brilliant and almost as good as Don Bradman, Michael Jordan. 

It was something that bit me at an early age. It was backed up by awesome sporting events happening in front of me like my favourite rugby league team winning the premiership twice in a row, Keiren Perkins dominating the 1500m freestyle, Trevor Hendy just hanging ten and winning everything in the surf and Triathlon being on tv regularly during summer. Thanks to this it bit me and never let go. Seeing it happen to a new generation inspires me.

I normally despise it when "age groupers" pretend to their work colleagues, friends and sponsors that they are a big thing, but I think on this occasion it serves more good than anything. Not only do the kids get a kick out of having a teacher that is an "athlete" for the day, they immediately show a greater deal of respect that goes with it. The chance for them to wear a medal and pretend it's actually their's and they won it for whatever I won it for really rubs off on them. I hope it has a positive influence on them in terms of a respect and admiration for sport.

At the end of the day though it's really comforting to see someone is happy when I win a medal. This is when Elite sport is at its best, when kids can dream.