The journey of an athlete is a walk in the park. Yups, that’s how I will describe it. A walk in the park; Jurassic Park, that is. With bloodthirsty rampaging dinosaurs and the whole nine yards. It’s literally all blood, sweat and tears. Not only athletes needs to be very disciplined, but to achieve their goals, they need to sacrifice a lot of energy, time and money as well. Apart from that, when an athlete decided to go down that path, there will always be naysayers who will dishearten and discourage them from achieving their goals.
In some scenarios, athletes are also targeted by cyber bullies. It doesn’t matter if they are newbies or seasoned athletes, there will always be haters who seems to dedicate their life to bring them down. There will always be people who will tell them that they will fail even before they try. Even when they are already established, there will always be people who will try hard to bring them down. Just look at our very own national athletes during Olympic. The amount of cyber bullying and criticism they received is ridiculously horrid!
It is also the same with my buddy Kingston when it comes to freediving. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen people doubted him and try to discourage him. People think that he cannot achieve greatness or success, simply because he’s already in his senior years.
For what it’s worth, I’m glad he didn’t listen and persevered. Kingston has been with me since day 1 I was certified as a freediver and I’ve seen how much progress he has made along the way. We’ve been keeping each other company during pool sessions and more, and he too influenced me on the way I dive. Kingston somewhat shaped me into a freediver I am today and I’m more interested in being a Safety Diver and a coach than an athlete
I wasn’t really surprised to see him perform impressively during his STA during the mock competition. He’s been training hard. And he’s been able to hit 3.30-4mins comfortably during our pool sessions together. With more consistent trainings, I believe that he can do more than 4.30mins without having LMC or blackouts. I was only surprised that he hit a 94m during his DYNB performance. That’s his PB and I’ve never seen him hit 90m before. So I guess what’s next for Kingston is working his way to joining the 100m club.
This posting is a bit late, but congratulations, Kingston; For winning the best overall male athlete during the mock freediving competition organized by Freediving Adventure Malaysia . It’s well deserved! I’m really happy to see you achieve all these and I’m really proud of you. Your journey does not end here. There is more ahead of you. Keep training, and I’ll be watching your growth and successes with great interest. 😃