I believe that a true athlete leaves their blood, sweat and tears on the court, field,
ice ring pool etc, also true athletes never gives up. A true athlete gives it everything they
have. Fighting until they can’t anymore. Last year during tennis districts my tennis
partner Melanie my best friend and I were playing in the deciding match for state. We
were playing against a team that we had beaten several times before. We knew how to
beat them and we were playing very well that day. We started the match, the third point
into the match my partner went back for a ball that was hit deep. When she was running
back she swung and her racquet got caught on the fence. When she drug her racquet it
caused her tendon to split. She at first ignored the pain and kept playing but when she
was returning the serve her tendon ripped even more. Immediately she was on the ground
screaming and crying, grabbing her wrist. The coaches and I were over to her in seconds.
My partner and I decided that we would keep playing and that I would just take most of
the balls. We tapped her wrist up. We started playing again, every time my partner hit the
ball she would scream and cry. The girls that we were playing against would constantly
try to hit it at my partner so I had to step up running all around the court. I was playing 1
vs. 2. The first set ended and we barely lost the score was 6-3. Our coaches came out to
talk to us. We thought that we were getting a normal pep talk but instead our head coach
told is that we were done playing. Melanie began crying cause she felt that it was her
fault we weren’t going to state. Seeing my best friend crying and in so much pain really
upset me. We shook the other teams hands. Our coaches came over and started talking to
us, Melanie started crying more, her crying made me cry. When we walked off the court
everyone was crying. That day I learned that no matter how hard you try sometimes you
don’t reach what you want, but from that day on we’ve been known as true athletes
because we we’re forced to stop playing. Most people would have stopped playing
immediately. True athletes never give up no matter what kind of pain.