Leading with Vulnerability

14The Sprinter and the Gymnast

In 2009, Berlin hosted the World Championships in Athletics. At the 100‐meter sprint, athletes from around the world who had trained their entire lives lined up ready to see who would be the world's fastest man. The gun went off and less than 10 seconds later Usain Bolt crossed the finish line with a world record time of 9.58 seconds that still stands today. The second‐place finisher was just 0.13 seconds behind Usain. Even though it was a very close race there was no question who won; Usain clearly crossed the finish line first.

Věra Čáslavská was a Czech gymnast who won 22 international titles between 1959 and 1968, including an astounding seven Olympic gold medals. She is considered to be one of the world's greatest gymnasts. At the 1968 Olympic games, Věra was performing a balance beam routine in front of judges from Hungary, Russia, Poland, the United States, and what at the time was known as East Germany. She scored 9.65, which gave her the silver medal. Her performance was perceived by the audience as perfect, and so her lower score was met with confusion, arguments, massive protest, and uproar in the arena. This lasted more than 10 minutes, at which point her score was increased to 9.8. Even though she got the silver medal, everyone thought she deserved gold and nobody understood why she didn't get it. There were a few problems with the subjective scoring. First, one of the judges was from Russia, which at the time had just invaded Czechoslovakia, ...