MYTH AND HEROES

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MYTH AND HEROES

        Today I am going to deal with the notion of myths and heroes. First of all I would like to give a definition of a hero. A hero is a person who is admired for his strength, courage, his outstanding achievements or his qualities. It can be a legendary/mythical hero, or modern hero, a person who has acted heroically or just our own personal hero, our role model. The role of the hero is to encourage others to surpass themselves morally or physically. Thus, to illustrate this notion I will talk about sports because sportsmen are considered as role models. Nowadays, sports is full of sacrifices for the athletes. Also, many athletes influence young people. This leads me to wonder if sports champions are true heroes. First I’m going to talk about a hero who overcomes obstacles with Aimee Mullin's.  Then we're going to talk about athletes as spokesperson as Mahavir Singh. Finally, I am going to talk about a fallen champion who is called Lance Armstrong.

        Fist of all, the first person, I want to talk about is Aimee Mullin's. She is an amputee woman because of a birth malformation. She grew up in America and come from a poor Irish immigrant family. While at college she was very good at running. Sport helped her to overcome her handicap. Despite her physical limitations, she pushed herself physically and mentally to succeed. She managed to register at University due to her running skills she developed with her prosthetic legs. “Wonder-woman” is her nickname, and she is all the more awe-inspiring stunning because she isn't a record breaker or an iron-willed, but likewise a model who has found in acting a courage. Mullins has since set her sights towards Hollywood. She has already had a few roles on television and in movies, and she has been featured in numerous magazines and books. She remains active in sports and served as 2005's President elect of the Women's Sports Foundation. With a personality as vibrant as her talents, she also works to reach out to the community, to help others recognize their own potential and talents, despite obstacles they may have to overcome. Mullins says she wants to stretch and push and pull her self to the farthest reaches of her emotional, intellectual and physical capacity. We can say she embodies a role model for anyone who would like to exceed themselves. Her life experience is an example, a guideline to people who want challenging goal in their life. Even with a disability, Aimee proves to other disabled people that even if they have a handicap, they should not stay focused on that and tell themselves « you're useless, you can do nothing ». If you don't' have legs, arms, sight, voice, hearing, you must just look at it as another opportunity to reach out to something bigger. It's necessary to overcome our fears, those obstacles, and transcend our desires with confidence in ourselves, in our dreams. Mullins has fire in her veins and inspires many people who find her amazing and consider her as a source of inspiration.

        We have seen that athletes can be considered as heroes thanks to their achievements, but some athletes can also be a voice for the people.

        Furthermore, an athlete can be a spokesperson. The second person I want to talk about is Mahavir Singh an Indian amateur wrestler and senior Olympics coach. His story was told in a film which is called Dangal, which means “wrestler”. He wanted to get the gold medal for his country but unfortunately he did not win it, hence, he thought that his children especially a boy would do what he couldn't do. But he had 4 girls. In the trailer of the movie Dangal says “only a boy can fulfil my dream”, but unlike what he thought: he and his daughters dreams came true. Indeed, he is a real life hero and a super daddy, who believes that it is not always necessary for a father to raise his daughters like princesses.  His wife says at the end of the trailer “ Wrestling is for boys.” and Mahavir answers “ You think our girls are any lesser than boys ?”. Sometimes, you have to make them tough, rough, and confident to face the realities of life. That's what Mahavir did with his daughters: they wanted to become wrestlers, he made their dreams come true. In the trailer he says “All along, I was desesperate for a son so he could win a gold in wrestling for India. But what didn't occur to me was that gold is gold whether a boy wins it or a girl.” In this way, his elder daughter Geeta Phogat won India's first gold medal in women's  wrestling in the 55 kg category at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and she was the first Indian woman wrestler to have been qualified for the Olympics. Then, his second daughter Babita Kumari won a bronze medal at the 2012 World Wrestling Championships and won the gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Hence, one of the strongest messages that he delivered to the world, especially the villages of India, is to believe that a woman’s place is not just in the kitchen. Mahavir also believes that instead of raising our daughters with the objective to get them married, we must ask them about their dreams and help them achieve them. However, things were not as easy as it seems. Mahavir has gone through a roller coaster ride to explain people why it is important to raise their daughters equally instead of pushing them to marry. He has defied many arguments, risked his own life and career; despite the hurdles, he stands alone to fight back the challenges posed for his daughters.

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