I’m not sure how many of you watched this television program but Paul and I really liked it. It was Superstars and it had an athlete and a “celebrity” teamed up to do some pretty athletic things. They did things like Kayaking and bowling, archery, bike riding and swimming events and it was pretty good. I was rooting for Kristi Leskinen who is an extreme skier and Maksim Chmerkovskiy from Dancing With The Stars cause you just have to love Maks.
But Paul and I had a hard time understanding the “strategy” of some of these people. Some of them didn’t try very hard if it entailed a lot of strength or it was something one of them wasn’t that good at. For example, one of the events was kayaking. The object of the game was to catch the kayak in front of you and they were then eliminated. One team got the kayak in front of them and then just gave up. They didn’t want to use all their energy on that one event. BUT in doing that, the other team won and they were going into the next event as an underdog and wouldn’t you know, the next event, neither one of them were good at and they ended up losing the game. This particular team did this throughout the whole game and it ended up costing them the win. They just strategized to the point of not playing.
Maks and Kristi ended up winning this because they tried hard at everything they did and just didn’t give up if they didn’t want to play one thing in particular. In one event, Maks was very afraid of heights and it was a big rock wall they had to climb up and ring a bell. He was pretty nervous but he played it and all the other players would have given up and thought, “I’ll let someone else win this one and we’ll (hopefully) win the next one.” I guess my point is that most of the team’s over-thunk things and Maks and Kristi just played each event to win without the “game playing” that all the others were doing.
It got me to wondering how many people are like this in real life. I really like to win as much as the next guy but I won’t lose sleep if I don’t. I try my best and if I lose a game I figure I can always try and win the next one. Also, I didn’t see how these people, who were playing for money for charity, could just give up one thing in hopes of winning the next one without knowing what that next one was going to be.
Us Girls..Our Views 
I’m kind of a mixture. I will play as long as it’s fun. But as soon as a thing starts to reek of politics, unsportsmanlike behavior, or just makes me look stupid, I lose my motivation and want to cut my losses. That said, I rarely officially commit myself to a competition. If I did, I’d do it with the understanding that I’d really try all the way.
I never watched Superstars, but I used to watch The Apprentice, and I had similar disappointments. They would recruit all these really smart young people, then give them impossible tasks that forced them to do things half-assed in order to get to the finish line. In the end, there would be a free-for-all about why everything was everyone else’s fault. What really bugged me was that Donald Trump would knowingly reward liars and punish people for being honest or holding themselves accountable. I feel there were many opportunities to really let people shine and let the viewers learn some interesting and valuable lessons. Instead, we saw most of the contestants reduced to petty, backstabbing, incompetent people whom I’d never want to work with or for.
I never watched it 😦
I’ve never even heard of it. I’m not that worried about winning, I’d rather have fun. Winning is always nice and I’ll put effort into it but I’ll never “do anything to win” Just not me.
If I were on a show like this or doing something as a team I’d put 100% effort in all activities. I wouldn’t just give up and hope to win the next one….doesn’t sound like a real winner to me.