Triathlon and Perseverance

Perseverance is a key element to accomplish something.  Einstein would say: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” At the same time, he said: “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” How long should we perseverate trying to solve a problem?  That depends on the culture and experience.  I remembered a friend doing a fellowship at Harvard who found out that a patient forged a signature to obtain more psychotropics, the pharmacy called him up to inform him.  He wanted to speak to the patient regarding the matter, but the “boss” just told him to call the police because he could end up in jail without a license.  The boss knew by experience that the best solution was to call the police.  My friend wanted to perseverate with the patient to learn more about her.

We have a case of perseverance in triathlon that has cost a lot of dollars to Mexico without expected results.  Any other nation would stop trying the same format except that money for the Federation/organizer in Mexico would stop flowing.  The economic reasons for perseverating won even when “fake news” were needed to support the program.  At the end, the purpose of keeping the program even when using “fake news” was not sport related.  It is just like my friend who wanted to call the patient to know more about the situation and the patient, losing the purpose of helping the patient to overcome addictions (sometimes the police can help to put limits to the situation).  Remember what Einstein said: “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”

The Mexican State has supported Crisanto Grajales since he started practicing triathlon because he has been the Mexican Champion, he even won the National Amateur Sportsmanship in 2016.  Camps around the world for him and his crew were paid by the state; budget is justified by winning events like the Central American Events:

02 Sep
200641

2006 Lausanne ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:01:5526 Aug
20063

2006 Veracruz ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup

Elite Men01:57:4011 Sep
200546

2005 Gamagori ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:00:0227 Aug
200521

2005 Veracruz ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup

Elite Men02:02:3906 Aug
20053

2005 Bogota PATCO Triathlon Pan American Championships

18-19 Male AG01:04:2408 May
200431

2004 Madeira ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:09:5906 Dec
200338

2003 Queenstown ITU Triathlon World Championships

Junior Men01:07:14

Recent Highlights

- 16th place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Leeds;
- 13th place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Gold Coast;
- 19th place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Yokohama;
- 24th place at the 2017 New Plymouth ITU Triathlon World Cup;
- 21st place at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Abu Dhabi;
- 7th place at the 2016 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Cozumel; and 
- 12th place at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

 https://www.triathlon.org/athletes/profile/7503/crisanto_grajales

Resources are limited as well as time.  Ignorance allows "fake news" to be part of our History and our governing bodies believe in these news; people called it marketing effect.  The format we have used as a nation to create triathletes have failed long time ago and we continued using it because of economic reasons.