It's Girls Who Are Taught Not To Be Competitive...

Rush shared the story today of a Division III high school runner who had won one race - and *I thought* she was about to win another but stopped to help another runner across the finish line, which caused her to finish last.

Rush takes this to mean the decline of American competitiveness, not recking that he's talking about girls here. I seriously doubt if boys of the same age would have done anything remotely similar.

(Which isn't to say girls can't be vicious - there was the clip of that female college soccer player who took down an opponent with moves reminiscent of a hockey player, and there's been a couple of actual fist-fights in NCAA Div 1 women's basketball)

But there was a story a few years ago now - about the girl who hit a home run but broke her leg. So her opponents carried her around the basepaths so she could touch each base, and thus win the game for *her* team.

But really, these are just sports, not business competition. I'd rather see someone deliberately lose - it's not like a scholarship or anything was on the line - then just plow past her.

"The West Liberty-Salem High School junior was the surprise winner in the Division III girls 1,600 meters in the finals of the state track meet at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Stadium. She broke away from race favorite Tammy Berger of Versailles and Delainey Phelps of Toledo Christian with 300 meters to go. She won going away in 4:58.31. It was the first time she had broken the five-minute mark. What Vogel did at the end of the D-III 3,200 meters, however, got her a standing ovation. "Within 20 feet of the finish line, Arden McMath, a sophomore from Arlington High School, collapsed in front of Vogel. Rather than run by her, Vogel helped McMath to her feet and helped her across the finish line. The crowd came to its feet with the roar growing louder with each step. 'Helping her across the finish line was a lot more satisfying than winning the state championship,' admitted Vogel. By rule, a runner in track or cross country is automatically disqualified for aiding another runner. In this instance, however, meet management took no action. McMath was given 14th place in 12:29.90 and Vogel 15th in 12:30.24. Vogel made sure McMath crossed the finish line first because she had been ahead of her. 'What a selfless act,' said Arlington coach Paul Hunter. 'She could have just gone around Arden. But she chose to help. I’ve never seen that at a state meet. That’s real sportsmanship.'"

Rush doesn't watch kids movies, but the same thing sort of happened in Cars I. The "hero" of the movie is about to win the race. 3rd place car causes the 2nd place car to wreck. Our hero stops short of the goal line, and goes to help the wrecked car, pushing it over the finish line. Meantime the 2nd place car goes on to win, but everyone ignores him because of the way he did it...