The B Lane Swimmer (2009)
When you&#x27;re the best (A lane) it&#x27;s easy to be magnanimous or nice. Your reward was the win and that gives you all the peace of mind needed for this.<p>When you&#x27;re the average or below average (C or D lanes) it&#x27;s just as easy to be nice. Being far from the top means the competitive pressure is not as taxing and maybe even the effort is lower. In those lanes if you feel the pressure to be the best you can either become the best (winning is the reward), or learn to deal with it and &quot;take it easy&quot; (playing the game is the reward), or since you&#x27;re pretty far from the top you can give up to relieve the pressure (not feeling the pressure is the reward).<p>But the B lane can be a bit of hell. You are competitive, you are so close to the top, and yet so far. Becoming the best is hard, giving up is just as hard, and learning to live with this &quot;close but no cigar&quot; situation is hard. Second best is the worst place to be. Almost all of the effort and qualifications, sometimes even more, none of the laurels. The most frustrating position. Nobody remembers the second best. All that might build up to a less than pleasant attitude.<p>Once you see it you recognize it all over the place. The player from the winning team offers to help his opponent up but never the other way around. The second best student is always far less happy than the one who just passed by the skin of their teeth. The candidate who won an election shakes his opponent&#x27;s hand while the opponent is broken.