IRONMAN: When medals are undeserved

In the days of the Roman Empire, spectators flocked to the arena in anticipation of the games. It was not uncommon for people to relax amid the throngs with good food and friends as they awaited the often brutal and deadly results of the various competitions. Being a spectator during the 2012 Ironman Coeur d’Alene brought to mind the very same.

While the headlines of The Coeur d’Alene Press are rife with adulation for those who crossed the finish line to become an Ironman, I wonder how many spectators would cheer if they knew the horrors that occurred during the swim, for instance. To those athletes who cursed and hit their fellow athletes to get ahead, causing untold suffering and horror, I would say that you don’t deserve the medal.

While I am sure that there are countless who think such actions “come with the territory” and are to be expected, I heartily suggest you read history and ponder with me how we can dismiss such actions so we can be entertained.

My sincere gratitude and adulation goes to the man who shielded with his body two swimmers in serious distress so that they would suffer no further from their fellow athletes. He truly epitomizes what it means to compete.

I am the proud mother of a 2009 Coeur d’Alene Ironman but what I saw on June 24 reminded me that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

DEBBY RUST

White Salmon, Wash.