Courage in Sports and in Life

A truly amazing character trait sports can help develop is courage. The most inspiring sports stories involve courage, and I’m sure that’s the case with the most inspiring life stories as well.

Tebowing Courage

Even though the Denver Broncos’ football season is over now, courage has been in the sports news a lot this year, thanks to the Tim Tebow phenomenon. I’m one of those who loved watching Tebow show the courage to express his faith so publicly.

Of course, some may ridicule the concept of “Tebowing.” (“Tebowing: (vb)- to get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone around you is doing something comepletely different.” [Tebowing.com]) But in a Fox Sports article, Tim Tebow tells one of the best things about people Tebowing. He says:

“It’s not my job to see people’s reasons behind it, but I know [of a kid] with cancer that tweeted me, ‘Tebowing while I’m chemoing’ — how cool is that?” Tebow said. “That’s worth it right now. If that gives him any encouragement or puts a smile on his face, or gives him encouragement to pray, that’s completely awesome.”

Courage in Facing Fear

And I loved hearing about the courageous last-minute game moves Tim Tebow has become known for.

An article from Yahoo! Sports has an interesting take on Tebow’s many late-game comebacks. It says:

What Tebow does, better than just about any other quarterback, is approach danger. Embrace danger.

I’ve seen that many times in figure skating as well. The skaters who show fear in events where fear is completely understandable have the worst performances. The skaters who aggressively and seemingly fearlessly attack their programs have the skate of their lives at the biggest and most difficult competitions.

I’d like to have more of that type of courage myself. How about you?

Inspiration from Soul Surfer, Bethany Hamilton (and word-art freebie)

Photo at top of post by Magic Mermaid at Flickr Creative Commons.