Get in the Arena

I've been away for the last week on a family break.

During that time, we had no TV and limited mobile phone signal, so it

has been lovely to disconnect, as it always is when I go away.

While I was away, the European Athletics Championships were held in

Birmingham, UK.

If I was home, I probably wouldn't have watched them, I tend to not

watch much TV. So much of the news I get from events like this comes

from SocMed which leads me to read news websites on any story I find

interesting.

And one story has bothered me.

It is the Irish Sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke.

I hadn't heard of here, didn't know anything of her, until SocMed

informed me of an Irish Athlete that has become the target of abuse and

outrage.

I click into the link and there is a photo of Rhasidat, in the Irish

green uniform draped in an Irish flag after winning the silver medal in

the 200m, beating Dina Asher-Smith, a former Olympic medalist and the

fastest British female sprinter of all time!

Why is Rhasidat making the papers?

Because small minded mouth breathing in-breeds can't handle the fact

that she is Black, Female and Irish.

This kind of bullshit isn't new.

It's been around a long time, I remember as a kid hearing the abuse

football legend John Barnes had to put up with because of his skin

colour, and it hasn't gotten any better, but the football fandom has

always had a scummy element to it.

I think this being athletics, and Irish is what has me annoyed.

Ireland is one of the more progressive and tolerant countries I know,

Dublin was my home for 20+ years, it's the longest I have ever lived in

one town.

And yet here we are.

Thankfully, as a nation, my adopted nation, we're still mostly good.

But the internet does give the mouth breathers a voice, and anyone who

puts themselves out there, anyone who is celebrated for their successes

will be targeted.

Targeted for succeeding, targeted for trying, targeted for having a go

and failing.

They'll pick on whatever low brow excuse they can, the colour of your

skin, your body composition, your postcode, something you may have said

that wasn't to their liking.

But these people will almost never be the people you need pay attention to.

Anyone who has stepped into the arena, at any level

Anyone who has done the work to achieve something, anyone who has gone

out and put it on the line whether they win or lose, succeed or fail.

Those people will never criticise you, those people will applaud and

celebrate your success.

These are the people that matter.

Find these people

Surround yourself as much as possible with these people

And ignore the mouthbreathers

They're not worth the oxygen they're stealing.

--

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net