I grew up watching the Olympics thru the eyes of a boy, thinking this was the best of everything in sports. Even though my news feed this morning was full of the many perversions on display at the opening ceremonies, I still feel that most athletes present are the epitome of sports and what sportsmanship is all about so I will certainly be watching.
I also had this story come across my news feed this morning, though some of you guys might enjoy it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/25/w...-olympics.html
Getting to the Olympics, the greatest sporting event in the world, often takes years of training and major sacrifices: of academics, social life, maybe postponement of career goals.
Then there is Matthew Dawson, an Australian field hockey player, who chose to amputate the top joint of his right ring finger rather than miss the Paris Olympics.
Dawson, 30, who also was on Australia’s Olympic team in Rio and in Tokyo, where the team won silver, seriously injured the fingertip two weeks ago. During a practice match in Perth, Australia, on the morning of July 11, another player’s hockey stick accidentally hit the finger, leaving it bleeding and partly detached, Dawson said.
“The first thought: OK, that’s it,” he said in a phone interview from the Olympic Village in Paris. “The Olympic dream is over.”
He consulted a plastic surgeon that same morning, who after examining an X-ray offered the option to amputate the finger below the top knuckle, Dawson said.
The alternative would have been to insert a wire to reconnect the tip, requiring months of healing with no guarantee of full recovery. But, the surgeon told him, amputation meant Dawson would most likely be able to play in 10 days’ time.
Dawson based his decision on both medical grounds and the nearness of the Games. Nearing the end of his field hockey career, this may well be his last Olympics, he said.
“We all make sacrifices and choices,” he said. “This is the choice I made to perform at the Olympics.”
By the afternoon, he was in surgery, where his finger was anesthetized and the tip removed just above the middle knuckle. He was out of surgery by evening, with stitches at the end of his shortened ring finger.
Since he arrived in Paris last week, his finger has healed well, he said. The amputation did not impede his playing, and the lingering pain was barely noticeable. While taking a bit of getting used to, it was not affecting his day-to-day life.
“You notice it sometimes when you try to pull something off, and the tip of that finger isn’t there to get a bit of grip,” he said.
Dawson said the last stitches would come out on Thursday. Afterward, his parents will travel to Paris to see him compete, and his wife and 10-month-old son will cheer him on from Perth, he said.
On Saturday, his team, nicknamed the Kookaburras, is playing its first match in Paris against Argentina.
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