Dow Travers is only 25 years of age and we in Cayman should be proud of him.

I got irate this morning when I read one of the negative comments made in the media:

“For Mr. Travers, his crashes in Sochi represent a decline in his Olympic performance. In his first Olympics appearance, he placed 69th in the Giant Slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Games.”

How can one say it was a decline?

Travers was actually going much faster than in his first Olympic appearance when he crashed in the Giant Slalom. 29 other competitors also crashed at a similar place in the course and nearly all were more experienced than Travers.

I suppose if Travers had completed the course with the intent of just completing the course and not competing the course, in other words trying to win and go the fastest he can, his performance would have been hailed as doing better than his first Olympic appearance if he had finished even one position better than the 69^th he did four years ago in Vancouver Games.

By all accounts from the professionals the course set in Sochi was much more difficult than the one in Vancouver.

In his first run in the Men’s Slalom that was a two run event he finished 76^th out of 117 competitors but crashed in his second run when again he was pushing to go faster. Travers had even said before the race that he was very disappointed with what happened in the Grand Slalom as it was his best event but, never-the-less he would give it his best.

Incidentally 40 other skiers also crashed proving how difficult the course was and the snow conditions.

Congratulations Dow Travers, the majority of us in the Cayman Islands are proud of you. Without you we would not have had even a flag to show the world – or your shorts and sandals.

Your achievement was being good enough to be called an Olympian.