Japan's Naoko Takahashi won the gold medal in the women's marathon in the Sydney Olympics Sept. 24. In winning the tough race on a difficult, up-and-down course, she established an Olympic record and became the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic marathon gold medal. She also gave Japan its first gold in an Olympic track-and-field event in 64 years. When she finished, she said she enjoyed the race.

Takahashi, who took up marathoning three years ago, trained hard for the Games. She ran on a hilly, heartbreaking course on a 3,000-meter highland at the same speeds that she would run on a flat lowland course. Athletes can improve their performance by surviving extremely difficult conditions. This is also true for businesses and national economic management.

Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset, the author of "The Revolt of the Masses," wrote that people who discuss changing values in a logical manner in the daytime long for the old times and become sentimental at night. They are constantly troubled by self-contradictions, said Ortega y Gasset when he wrote of the mental conflicts affecting people who live in a period when value systems change dramatically.