In Zidane's Head

There's been a lot of comment on Zidane's head butt on Materazzi during the World Cup Final.

While I don't agree with it, I completely understand it, and it is completely in character with Zidane- or any other great sporting champion. Because sporting greatness in virtually any sport requires having a ruthless and mean streak. Sometimes the streak gets a little out of hand. It comes with the territory.

Think of Michael Jordan's legendary competitiveness. Lance Armstrong's obessive focus. Michael Schumacher's driving style and tactics. Pelé breaking the legs of Kiesman and Procópio. Or of Muhammad Ali, who deliberately prolonged his pounding of Ernie Terrell in 1967, and taunted Floyd Patterson and Joe Frazier, destroying both of them mentally.

The fact is, in sport, to be a great champion you need to have that killer instinct. Off the field you can be the nicest guy in the world- but when you get on the field you have to want to win so badly that you will destroy anyone who gets in your way. I personally must confess my best performances came when I had psyched myself to the point of hating my opponent.

At the same time, of course, you must control your emotions, they must not control you. Your emotions are your slaves, not your masters. So I don't agree with what Zidane did, but I completely understand why he did it, and his greatness and legacy as an athlete is not tarnished in my eyes.

On a lighter note, this made me laugh:

Eukonkannon MM-Kisat

Xin Hui and I proudly flew the Singapore flag at the 11th Wife-Carrying World Championships this past weekend. After a very exciting afternoon of racing, we emerged 29th- the top team from Asia and ahead of the Australians, Germans and French!

We were a bit unlucky as we were drawn in a heat against the North American champions, Ehrin and April Armstrong, who had won the tough North American Wife-Carrying Championships in Maine last October, rather than a team who might have been more comparable to us in time. Still, it was an honour to race them, and we did a very good time of 1 min 37.7 sec.

As you can see, we were very proud to be Singaporean and went over the top with the red and white body paint, clothing, and stars and crescent moon motifs. We were the first Singaporeans to take part in the Championships, and we weren't afraid to let everyone know that Singaporeans can be fun and crazy too!

More than the race, the whole event was a lot of fun, and we made many new friends- not just Finnish, but also Estonians, Germans, French, Irish and Americans, among others. We also met two nice South Korean university students who were volunteers all the way from Seoul as part of a work exchange programme with a Finnish university. The Finns have a reputation for being shy, but I didn't see any evidence of that.

As our new friend Julia remarked after her race, "When I first came here four years ago, I came to visit the Finns; Now I come every year to visit my friends."

For a longer, more interesting report, see Xin Hui's blog (click "quotidian").