I didn’t do it for glory. No one even ever heard of me. All I wanted was to be the best version of myself. My friend who made it to the Olympics did it because when you love doing something you look for every opportunity to follow your passion even if no one knows the name of the bobsled brakeman who works at home depot and lives with his coach to make ends meet. Doing it for national glory is something our nations assign to our athletes. Don’t do let nations and capital holders trick you into believing that. They do it because they love what they do. They compete because competition through sport is something our species has ways done and always will do. Its part of us, just like singing, dancing, storytelling, and creating works of art. The Olympics by their nature as the most globally visible event are also the highest level of competition. When you do something, and you do it well, you want to see the other people who also do it doing it the very best they can.

No one deserves to be treated as less than just because what they do is different from us. JPEGMAFIA deserves the money he makes producing music and poetry. Silas House deserves the money he makes telling stories. School teachers deserve to eat for preparing the rest of us for the future. Don’t buy the narrative of “knowing what they signed up for.” Its a distraction that does nothing but benefit the predators really raking in the cash like Nike, the IOC, the USOC, and USATF. The corrupt systems that profit of benefits but do not mutually benefit them do not deserve our protection