Simone Biles, Usain Bolt, and Michael Phelps are household names throughout the world. These athletes are known for their success on the world’s highest competitive level; they are Olympians. Since a French winter’s night in late 1892, the modern Olympics as we know them today began with a simple announcement of their reinstitution. Since that time over 100 years ago, the Olympics have grown into one of the most well-known sporting events in the world. The most recent Olympics in Rio, Brazil, averaged a viewership of 27.5 million each day.
These games, however, have not been viewed through an entirely positive lens. There were accusations of cheating, doping, sexism, poor housing and infrastructure, poverty, concerns about the Zika virus, and even illegal activity by an executive of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This is nothing new to the Olympics, however. History is riddled with controversial Olympics: the Olympics of 1936 in Nazi Germany, the Black Power salute of 1968, disqualifications, stripping of medals, terrorist attacks, etc.
The list could extend on and on, but I choose not to do that; I am not writing this to focus on the negative. I will openly proclaim my love for the Olympic games, but it’s more than my love for them that causes me to overlook the negative. Abraham Lincoln is credited as saying, “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” If we only focus on the “thorns” of these events we miss “roses,” such as the fact women were allowed to compete almost 20 years before they were allowed to vote. So when it comes to the Olympic “rose bush,” I choose to focus on the beauty of it while recognizing there are “thorns”.
This attempt at positivity led me to look beyond the question “What good do the Olympics do?” and ponder on the question “What lessons can I learn about medicine from these most recent games?” Certainly, this is a seemingly unique and surprisingly thought-provoking question. If you were lucky enough to sneak away from studying or work to watch some of the athletes compete, then I encourage you to take a moment and ponder that question for yourself before continuing.
The first lesson I learned from the Rio games occurred during the opening ceremonies. For the first time in history—including the ancient Olympics—there was a team of refugees, who without home, were able to compete. And although they didn’t win any medals, they won the world’s heart through their perseverance and desire. It reiterated to me that just as these athletes’ lives were forever altered by tragic events, they still wanted to do what they loved. Our patients are the same. They may have life-altering illnesses, but they still want to be successful, recognized for their value, and do the things that bring them joy. As healthcare providers, we must consider how can we support them as they persevere through their challenges.
It was the women’s 5000m qualifying, and the competition, as in all Olympic sports, was fierce. With 1600 meters left to go, New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin suddenly took a plunge onto the track taking with her American Abbey D’Agostino. Hamblin reached down to lift the physically and most certainly emotionally hurt D’Agostino. Together they finished the race in last place and, although failing to qualify, were allowed to compete in the finals. From this story there are numerous lessons, but I can’t help but to see two as most prominent. First, although competitors and from different countries, they were able to overlook that to focus on helping each other. For those of us training, it can easily be construed as us against them. However, my classmates are not my competition. We have the same goal: to successfully finish the race to graduation and medical practice. We each want to make a better world, and it becomes more difficult to do that if when one of us falls, the rest of us continue to run with caring about the friend we’re leaving behind. The second lesson is very similar. There may come a time in medicine when we may not agree with colleagues or patients, but we have a higher calling than being right, than imposing our personal as opposed to medical judgment on our patients and others. By working with the patient, we can provide better outcomes for everyone involved.
Michael Phelps seems to have a knack for close finishes. In Beijing in 2008, he won a race by 0.01 sec., and in Rio this year, he won his 20th gold medal and 24th overall Olympic medal by 0.04 sec. in the 200m butterfly. The lesson here is simple but important. Any victory, no matter how small, is still a victory. That is important for physicians and students to remember at the end of a difficult day. It’s also important to remind patients of when they are battling an illness such as cancer or an addiction such as smoking.
After contemplating on these lessons some I became interested what the Olympics had to say about themselves. The first fundamental principle of the Olympic Charter declares: “Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” Simply by replacing a few words, this one of many declarations becomes more than applicable to healthcare. “Medicine is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending health with culture and education, medicine seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.” To me, this sounds very reminiscent of many of our classes’ oaths.
These were only a few of many examples from these recent Olympics. Can you imagine the lessons we could learn from over a century of them? Sports so often mirror life, even the life of physicians and medical students. Sure there are negatives to the Olympics and frankly with any large and influential institution. But there are so many positives and lessons to be gleaned from them also, many of which can be related to our professional and personal life. If we focus on the negatives or “illnesses” of the Olympics, we may do so, but in doing so we risk missing the lessons and opportunities to learn from the abounding good that occurs and thus become better doctors and human beings.
Charles Smith is part of the 2019 class at The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. He graduated in 2014 from Southern Virginia University with a BS in biology and a minor in chemistry. He went on to earn his MA in biomedical science from Midwestern University. He is passionate about the humanities; during his undergraduate years, he was involved in theater, choir, and writing. His interests are in ethics, religious liberties and medicine, and rural medicine with an emphasis on Native American health. However, his proudest moment is performing with the groom’s party at his best friend’s wedding in the band “The Groom Reapers.”