Essay on Striving to Win

Growing up my whole life, I was taught that we must always strive to win, to be the best.  We should always try our best ,but I started to notice that this idea of always having to win was drilled so hard into my brain I started to want to win. No matter the cost for me or for my classmates around me. Now that I'm older I've started to realize something. Winning without a doubt is not the most important thing in sports. Now I'm not saying winning isn't  important. In fact it is very important, it's the goal of every sport. But there are things more vital than winning.

For instance in an April 29,2020 article, “The Role Of Winning In Youth Sports”, compiled by David A. Feigley, Ph.D stated that ” Winners are those who handle failure better”. There is often a common belief held that those who are successful were always successful throughout their careers. He goes on to say that winners are those who cope with failure better. Which I completely agree with. Sports teach us life lessons that we can take and use for the rest of our lives, sure it's fun to win but in the long run sports are there to help teach us hard work,discipline, and to do the things we love with passion. And there are many examples of winners not always winning. For example did you know Michael Jordan was cut from his highschool basketball team. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player to ever step onto the court, was cut from his highschool basketball team. This goes to show that we don't need to always win to be the best.     

It sounds backwards, but hear me out. In another article entitled, “Is winning the most important thing in sport”?, Written and published by the Acting Colleges.org, expresses ``Just because you're winning, doesn't mean you're the best, and you may even stop striving to be or working as hard as those around you.” If you're not being challenged, no growth happens” At first losing doesn't feel all that good but  losing builds character. This helps support the fact that you're always winning. You're not getting better because there's no real competition to compare yourself too.

Now I know some of you think that what I'm saying is a bunch of bs and that winning is literally the point of any given sport, this is true, Athletes want to win. At the highest level of sports the difference between 1st and 2nd is millions of dollars and a significant amount of fame. Aurora University supports this by saying “ some athletes may believe winning really is the only thing. To them, the risk of getting caught and being labeled a cheater is worth the money and glory that being the best brings.” This helps illustrate that if winning is so important to the extreme it compromises  the sport and your own integrity. Is it truly worth winning?

In the end I do believe that winning is a very important thing, but there are many things more important such as coping with setbacks, winning with integrity, and losing. The biggest take away I want to leave with you  is that great athletes are not the ones who always win, but the ones who keep fighting.