Are we taking judgmental way too far?

All over the news today- how the Aussie 4 x mens relay team 'shocked, disappointed' and made a 'disaster' of the final by not getting a medal at all.

The current generation of kids probably need to learn that it is not a good thing to brag about your strengths all the time, and also that life in general will not always give you what you want.

I'm sure Magnussen has learnt the hard way of what this means by having to deal with this in the media spotlight, but as more mature adults though (in the media) I really get uncomfortable by them consistently dwelling on what was 'expected and then it all just failed' and trying to find complex explanations of 'what went wrong'.

Am probably over-generalising here, but there seems to be a consensus that where there is talk about how great he is, the incredible journey he has gone on so far and how he is the 'next big thing to watch out for', the media over-emphasises this so everyone jumps on board.

But then when it all doesn't happen, the media does the horrible thing of actually trying to prove to the public that their much talked about hype is valid and that he simply 'didn't deliver' or 'fulfill their expectations'. What then happens in contrast to before, is that the general public then join in on the ridicule with comments and statements such as 'Such a disappointment' and 'Magnussen talks himself up and fails miserably- no longer supporting you anymore' on Twitter.

Yes, he is gutted and his dream in this one race didn't happen. But then again not all champions do well every single time. I remember back when Pieter Van Den Hoogenband won almost every freestyle gold medal, and then suddenly he was soundly beaten by other more faster competitors. What he did was simply shrugged it off by accepting the fact that he was beaten fair and square, and that he should just concentrate on the race itself, and if he happened to win a medal then that was a bonus.

We are our own worst critics, but I don't believe it is helpful by shielding the younger generation from the disappointments that will be inevitable in their lives, by only teaching them that successful people and people that win are the ones that have a happy, fulfilling life.

Anyone heard of Eric the Eel?