Three Inspirational Winners

Olympics is a lifetime event. Lawrence Lemieux stopped racing in a yacht race to help a fellow competitor who was in trouble. The whole world was watching. His priority of safety for other people's lives was greater than his desire to win. Even though he did not win the race, he was a winner. He was honored by kings and queens all over the world because he kept the spirit of the Olympics alive.

I heard the story about Reuben Gonzales when he was in the final match of the racquetball tournament. This was an important event and he was playing for the world title. In the final game at match point, Gonzales played a super shot to save point. The referee and the linesman both confirmed that the shot was good and he was declared the winner. But Gonzales, after a little pause and hesitation, turned back to shake his opponent's hand and said, "The shot was faulty." As a result, he lost the serve and eventually, lost the match.

Everyone was stunned. Who could imagine that a player with everything officially in his favor, with winning in his pocket, would disqualify himself and lose. When asked why he did it, Gonzales replied, "It was the only thing to do in order to maintain my integrity." He lost the match, yet he was a winner.

A group of salespeople left town for a meeting and told their families they would be back home Friday evening for supper. But as with meetings the way they are, one thing leads to another and they didn't finish on time. They were delayed and had to catch a flight. They came to the airport just at the last minute, with tickets in hand, and ran, hoping the plane hadn't departed. While running, one of them hit a table and on the table was a fruit basket. All the fruit got scattered and bruised but they didn't have time to stop. They kept running and made it to the plane and all of them breathed a sigh of relief that they had made it, except one. He got in touch with his feelings, got up, said good-bye to his friends and went. What he saw made him glad that he came out. He went to the table that was knocked down and behind the table was a ten-year old blind girl who was selling the fruits to make a living. He said, "I hope we haven't ruined your day." He pulled out $10 from his pocket, handed it to her and said, "This will take care of the fruits," and he left. The girl couldn't see what was going on; all she could hear was the footsteps leaving. As the footsteps faded away, she shouted from behind, "Are you God?" He missed his flight but was he a winner? You bet. One can be a winner without a medal and one can be a loser with a medal if winning is not kept in perspective.