Fourth

December 22, 2017 7:58 PM

Most of the time the expression is expressionless, it’s a set look, which crosses the human face. It’s an awful, beautiful, knowing mask, which says ‘Oh s…t!’ Fourth by Tracey Moffatt
posted by Start with Dessert (4 comments total)

My photo series Fourth is no great document of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. I think I’m trying to say something grand about competition in general. That it’s beautiful to try. That to reach a final at an Olympic Games is a great achievement. To even be invited to participate in the Olympic Games is a great achievement. To even be athletic in general is a great achievement. To get yourself up and walk down the street is a great achievement. To wake up and face another hideous day is a great achievement. To even think about what you are going to do in the next hour is a great achievement. I could go on and on. Like I said, I have a different take on it all.

I love me some Moffatt.
posted by Thella at 9:38 PM on December 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is timely...
I just watched a CBC News item about the Canadian luge team that just won Olympic bronze retroactive to 2012 because members of another team were caught doping...

The archival footage of them realizing they were coming fourth was so despondent, their interviews all about letting Canada down...

Like the quote above I kept thinking, "jeez! You were in the Olympics and got fourth! That's not losing!" But of course that's from my point of view.
posted by chapps at 12:05 AM on December 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oof. What heartbreak. To be so good, but not quite good enough, on such a big stage. I can't imagine. Great idea for a photo series.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:27 AM on December 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's natural to consider yourself in comparison to other elite competitors, at that point, not to people who couldn't even get there, I guess.

But I hate to see people down on themselves for not quite placing. In some of the sports, I don't even know how meaningful winning is anymore. Isn't speed skating decided by hundredths of seconds now, for example? The winners really maybe were a little luckier, not really superior in their performance.
posted by thelonius at 4:34 AM on December 23, 2017 [2 favorites]