A fairy tale is a children’s story depicting magical creatures, heroes, triumph and happy endings. “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and “The Ugly Duckling” are all different forms of fairy tales. There are a lot of fairy tale stories in real life, not with magical creatures, but with the rags-to-riches happy endings.
We see them in the media every day. Justin Bieber, a young teenage kid from a small town in Canada, posted a few videos on YouTube, and now he is one of the most popular and well-known teens in the world.
His mother was a single parent and had to go to shelters for help and food. Bieber can now feed a few countries. Bieber is a living fairy tale happy ending.
There are others in the media like J.K. Rowling. She had just gotten divorced and was living on welfare with a small infant. She wrote most of the first Harry Potter books in cafés. She even got turned down a few times before someone published the story.
Now she is one of the most famous authors in the world and has set new boundaries and redefined many aspects of writing. Rags to riches is her fairy tale story, and she rocks it.
Now you are probably wondering what this has to do with sports. That’s a good question. I have been wondering that myself. There are lots of fairy tale stories in sports. Let’s talk about a few.
Bethany Hamilton (who I have always been a fan of), pro surfer, was bitten by a shark as a young teenager. She came out on top to live her fairy tale.
After losing her arm to a shark, she had to retrain and learn how to surf with only one arm. She surfed in a competition and failed miserably, but she did not give up. She worked harder and set an amazing example for many people. She eventually went on to be a pro-surfer champion. She still surfs today and rocks it.
The Boston Red Sox have been known as the cursed team in the MLB. The curse of the Bambino is accused of being the reason that the Red Sox had such an unsuccessful team from 1918-2004. The curse began after the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in the off season of 1919-1920.
Before they sold the Great Bambino, the Red Sox were one of the most successful teams in the majors. They did not have a winning season until 2004 when they finally won a world series. It was a dream come true for many fans and a happy fairy tale ending.
Prominent in the sports’ world news lately is one Jeremy Lin. Lin is a starter for the New York Knicks and has come out of nowhere to lead the Knicks to a winning season.
He did not receive any athletic scholarship out of high school and was undrafted after college. He was assigned to the NBA’s D-League three different times and never saw the court his rookie year. Now he has led the Knicks on a winning streak and is the first Asian American to play in the NBA. He even has his own fandom term: Linsanity.
Lin is kind of a big deal these days. He stuck with the sport and is now living a current sport fairy tale.
Whatever type of fairy tale or happy ending comes about, sports fairy tales are my favorite. I feel like sports fairy tales can relate to anybody and be motivational for anybody. It doesn’t have to be some huge adversary like getting attacked by a shark, stuck with a century old curse or being one of the most underestimated players in your field. You can have a fairy tale ending of your own. Don’t give up, and your fairy tale ending will happen.
