美国总统奥巴马曾连赢两届总统大选，但在10月11日于市政厅举办的一场与青年学子的交流座谈会中，奥巴马多次公开提到，自己也有过不那么拔尖的时候。

　　President Barack Obama won two straight elections for the White House, but on Tuesday during a talk with students at a town hall on race and sports he discussed a few times when he did not always come out on top.

　　美国总统奥巴马曾连赢两届总统大选，但在10月11日于市政厅举办的一场与青年学子的交流座谈会中，奥巴马多次公开提到，自己也有过不那么拔尖的时候。

　　Obama recounted the fallout from his first presidential debate in his ultimately successful 2012 election race against Republican Mitt Romney.

　　奥巴马回想起2012年大选时，在首场辩论和共和党对手米特·罗姆尼唇枪舌战后的心路历程，他认为当时自己表现非常糟糕。

　　"I had that first debate, which was roundly panned. Everybody said you were terrible," Obama said at the town hall hosted by ESPN’s The Undefeated at North Carolina A&T State University. "What is true is that I’ve always kind of hated these debate formats, so it wasn’t my best performance."

　　“我首场辩论的表现恶评如潮，大家都说我表现很差”，奥巴马在运动频道ESPN旗下网站“The Undefeated”于北卡罗来纳农工州立大学主办的座谈会上这样说道，“事实上，我平常就蛮讨厌这种辩论形式，所以没有发挥到最好。”

　　He said what really inspired him to "dig deep" for the second debate was seeing young volunteers around the country. While they put on a brave face, Obama said he could tell they were worried about the race.

　　奥巴马还提到，促使他全力以赴第二场辩论的动力来源于当时全国各地的青年志愿者们。虽然他们故作坚强，但是自己能够从他们的脸上看出担心选情的情绪。

　　"I just thought to myself these kids are pouring their hearts and souls into making calls and knocking on doors, I’m not going to disappoint them," he said.

　　“我跟我自己说，这些孩子们付诸了全部的心力，又是打电话，又是敲门拉票，我不能让他们失望。”奥巴马说道。

　　Obama also described his experience losing his first campaign for a U.S. congressional seat in 2000 and how it humbled him. Without that defeat, Obama said he did not believe he would have went on to win his Senate race in 2004.

　　奥巴马也提到2000年首次参选国会失利的经历，也正是那一次经历让他懂得了谦卑，要不是有那次失败经验，他可能没办法再接再厉，进而在2004年赢得联邦参议院席次。

　　"What is true about politics that is similar to sports, though, is when you lose, you lose publicly," he said. "It’s a hard feeling. One of the benefits of defeat is to take some of the vanity out of what it is you’re trying to achieve."

　　“政治和运动差不多的地方就在于，失败时，会搞得众人皆知，那种感觉真的不好受。而失败的好处之一，就是会让你拥有朝目标前进的动力，少点虚荣之心。”

　　The issue of race and sports has been in the spotlight recently after NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers started a controversial movement when he chose to stay seated, for the national anthem this season to protest racial injustice.

　　前段时间，美国橄榄球联盟旧金山49人队的四分卫柯林·卡布尼在唱国歌时并没起立，以此来对美国压迫有色人种的行为表示抗议，此事一出，便引起了各方对种族和体育这一话题的关注。

　　Asked about sports and activism, Obama cited two of his childhood sports heroes: boxer Muhammad Ali and tennis player Arthur Ashe. Both had totally different styles, with Obama saying Ali was more outspoken and Ashe more buttoned down. But he said they both brought about change.

　　当被问到体育和激进主义时，奥巴马列举了自己童年的两个体坛英雄：拳王阿里和网球运动员亚瑟·阿什。他们两人截然不同，拳王阿里性格更加坦率，直言不讳;阿什相对来说较为沉默保守。但奥巴马表示两人都是划时代的标志人物。

（编辑：何莹莹）