-Fiedrich Nietzsche
I think that in anything from sports to academics everyone tries to distinguesh themselves, not by lowering someone else but by raising the highest standard a little bit higher. If on a basketball team the most points ever scored in a game was twenty-one then someone else might try to score twenty-five. Or perhaps in an Algebra class the highest grade oon a test was 94, then another person might want to make a 96 on the next exam. One the example of Mother Tereasa, she was not trying to make everyone elso a little meaner to make herself look nicer. She was nicer and more giving than others because she wanted to be. She wanted to show the world that she was not afraid to give up whatever she had.
Sometimes when someone is trying harder, it may seem that they are trying to subjugate another. When, in fact, that person is setting a goal for her/himself. Without doing that, we as humans canot grow and develope to our full potential. This is what keeps our civilization expanding to new horizions.