You have to learn how to lose.
Regardless of who you are, what your history is, what your opinions and beliefs are or where you live, we all lose. Every single one of us.
Whether it’s not getting offered the job you want, not doing as well as you had hoped to on a test, a failed relationship, a flat tire, your favorite sports team losing or spilling your coffee, we all know what it feels like to lose.
But it’s not how many times you lose or what you lose that matters, it’s how you respond to that loss. Do you know how to respond and find the next win. Finding that next win became the theme for the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross season as the championship race came to a close in Las Vegas.
It’s how to respond to that loss that builds character and it’s how you respond to that loss that defines who you are as a human being.
For Red Bull KTM rider Cooper Webb, that hard loss has turned into a career milestone win as Webb is your 2019 Supercross season champion in the 450X Class.
But learning through adversity doesn’t only apply to Webb in the 2019 season, it was the theme of the season. Webb, two seasons ago was coming off an injury and did not have a ride to compete on. Look at him now, a champion.
2018 champion Jason Anderson was sidelined this season after a crash.
The 250 east points leader Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forker seemed like the easiest bet in Vegas to win the title after he started the season undefeated. A crash took him out giving the title to GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton.
In the west, it was Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo’s title to lose. He did just that. After a crash into the tough blocks, Cianciarulo was done for the night. As Cianciarulo limped his bike back into the pits all he could do was watch his points lead fade away into a win for Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Dylan Ferrandis.
After the race, there was joy and there was also resolve. For Cooper Webb, the joy of winning and overcoming his adversity was almost too overwhelming for him.
“It’s been an incredible journey, I mean, just the changes here,” said Webb . “I was a washed up tenth place guy in 2018 and this KTM team believed in me and this group of guys took me in and transformed me and got me back to what I knew I could always be. And I really just can’t believe it; this year was not expected at all but, man, I just can’t thank those guys enough for giving me this opportunity to get back to this level and to do it this way. It’s unreal. It’s a dream come true since I was a little kid. Never thought I’d be a 450 champion, that’s for sure, but you just gotta dream at something, and this is what we did, and now we did it. It’s an incredible feeling.”
For Ferrandis, the moment and triumph was too much as the French rider could not find the words in English to describe himself as tears flowed down his face.
“I’m so happy, you can’t believe how much I’m happy right now, it’s more than a dream come true,” said Ferrandis. “I’m thanking all the people right now who helped me.”
It was not hard to find his support team, as they serenaded Ferrandis with the French national anthem for the entire podium presentation.
But what of the others, the ones who found adversity this season, the likes of Anderson, Forkner and Cianciarulo to name a few. While others found their way out of adversity to a win, these find themselves still in it.
For Forkner, he put his heart and feelings into instagram to tell everyone that “He will be back.”
For Anderson, he is already training and fingers crossed we may see him in the outdoors.
For Cianciarulo though, he finds himself in a familiar position. Coming so close to a title to only have it slip out of his grasp. However, it was Cianciarulo who summed it up best after the race.
“I don’t believe in luck. I don’t believe in why me. I believe in taking accountability…”
That is the lesson finale. Adversity and loss comes all of our way. Getting through it takes accountability. There is a lesson in sports.
The 2019 Supercross season taught us one this year.