Thought this is too good a moment to let it slips past all of us…
Yes… this is Olympic, and has nothing got to do with robotics. But the spirit behind this has everything got to do with all of us that are involved in robotics competitions.
In recent seasons, we see some teams taking the win-at-all-cost mentality; and some teams that couldn’t accept that they have lost to other teams that played the game better or built a better robot; some teams that couldn’t see eye to eye with other teams; some teams that got puffed up 100x after they won a tournament (or worse… some goad the teams that were not in the winning alliances); some teams displayed racist/sexist behavior towards some minority teams…(you can add on to the list), etc…
Of course all of us want to win the worlds.
But let’s remember - once the match is over, whatever the outcome of the match is, it is less important than what you have learnt from it, and the friendships and respect that you gained from it.
Something that my school always tell the our school teams - win with grace, and lose with dignity.
See you guys in worlds… and may the best team wins!
Many students are impressed upon by their parents/mentors who are competitive but don’t personally know their child’s peers/opponents. One of the things you get in robotics and athletic communities is a sense of kinship with other members of the community by seeing them over and over, competing with them yearly or even several times a year over the course of several years. You are on a first name basis with them; you know their numbers, their talents, and their personalities. In the Georgia VEX scene, most of the competitors are on a first name basis with each other, so while they are competitive, they are also a community. If the members of your local robotics community don’t exhibit this behavior, they might not spend enough time together. Try finding or founding summer camps, or attending more local (less than 3 hours travel time) competitions to get to know your opponents.
Racism and Sexism stem from not having peers that are different from you. If a team is displaying those behaviors, they just need to go to more competitions and spend more time around people who are just like them in robotics, and nothing like them otherwise.