On the way to work this morning I heard a story on NPR about figure skaters at the Olympics having the opportunity to work together on a team rather than be competitive against each other as apparently is the norm in figure-skating circles (pun noted). It reminded me of something that occurred to me a few months ago while watching little league sports and being impressed with the coaches’ emphasis on congratulating the other team when they did well:

I don’t like the sports expression “beat.” Outside of boxing or martial arts or perhaps rugby, it’s not accurate to say that I am “beating you” even if I am winning a contest.

On the heels of this comes another reason I don’t want to “beat you.” It suggests that in order to win, I have to diminish you. But this is not at all what sportsmanship is about. In sports, I don’t want to defeat you or make you smaller. In fact, I want you to be at the top of your game, to push me to go faster/better/harder than I would if you weren’t there. That’s true whether I’m rowing, running, or just existing as a human being. And I want to do the same for you.

I also just read about the IndyStar’s #SharetheLove campaign and this seems like an interesting parallel. As we respond to one another’s efforts of any kind, physical or not, there are bound to be ways we can “encourage each other and build each other up” rather than diminish each other. And maybe as we enjoy the Olympics together we can try to find new verbs to describe the athletes who score more points than their peers — words that elevate sport itself and the extraordinary investment of time and talent that went into getting anyone there in the first place.