Courage In Sports
Courage can be found in many forms.
Someone who is brave enough to stand-up for what is right.
On April 28, 1967, boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army and is immediately stripped of his heavyweight title. Ali not only sacrificed his championship but lost several years of his career, because he was banned from boxing. On June 20, 1967, Ali was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for three years. He stayed out of prison as his case was appealed and returned to the ring on October 26, 1970.
Perhaps courage can mean changing the way you think or look at the world in the face of scrutiny of others.
In 1936, the Olympics were held in Nazi Germany. An athlete by the name of Jesse Owens dominated every track competition he was in. When the long jump came around Owens knew it would not be an easy victory. One athlete from Germany by the name of Luz Long who also competed against Owens in the long jump. Owens faltered twice and was near out of the competition when Long came to Ownes and told him to jump several inches before the board to clearly show he WASN'T committing a penalty during the jump. Owens did and became the gold medal winner for the event. The first to congratulate Jesse Owens was silver medal winner Long. "It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler," Owens said. "You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II."
Luz and Owens
Courage can be defined as the acquired ability to move beyond fear
February 9th, 2014 Michael Sam who announced that he was homosexual.
Making this statement before the 2014 NFL draft made his life open to several unknown factors. It could have wrecked his draft status, his monetary future, treatment by teammates, reporters, and management. Michael Sam prevailed because he had the acquired ability to move beyond any of the unknowns, and have faith in his known self.
"I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it," Sam told The Times. "I just want to own my truth."
"I am an openly, proud gay man," Sam told ESPN.
"I understand how big this is," he said. "It's a big deal. No one has done this before. And it's kind of a nervous process, but I know what I want to be ... I want to be a football player in the NFL."
Courage is fighting even when few know that you're in a fight
Athletes such as basketball player Lauren Hill who recently passed away this year at the young age of 19 because of brain cancer. A disease called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). "When I was diagnosed I remember kind of feeling lonely because nobody understood. And now that more people know about this story and the awareness of DIPG. I'm so happy that people know about it now and that we can get some research going and hopefully find that home run cure for cancer," Lauren said.
"And even though I'm probably not going to be around to see it, it's going to help a lot of people. And that's why we need to keep staying with this and not end it with this game, and keep supporting research."An announced $40,000 was raised the day of the game for The Cure Starts Now Foundation and pediatric cancer research. Overall, her nonprofit foundation has helped to raise more than $1.5 million for cancer research.
