Olympic Lessons

"If my dreams can happen to me, your dreams can happen to you. Champions are not made on the track or field; champions are made by the things you accomplish and the way you use your abilities in everyday life situations." ~Bob Beamon

I've entered into a deep state of depression following the Closing Ceremonies last night.  What will I do every night between 7 and 11 o'clock now that I cannot watch Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin, Sanya Richards-Ross or Misty and Kerry?  Sigh.

Of all sporting events, I think that the the Olympics might be the most important, for what it teaches us.

First, the Olympics teach us that even though we are different, we are all the same.  I shared my thoughts on this last week in my blog about Kirani James and Oscar Pistorious.  But you look at the Olympics and you see athletes from across the globe competing with each other in the same sport, and shaking hands at the end.  You see all different languages and ethnicities, different social classes and religions, different ages and education levels....but for two weeks, every four years, they are all one.  If you ask me, the world leaders (and the world) would do well to take a few lessons from these young people and the example they set.

Second, the Olympic athletes teach us that we can do great things. I distinctly remember being a little kid--must have been in 1988--watching Jackie Joyner Kersee compete in the Heptathalon.  After watching her run the 100M hurdles, I went over to the shelf of VHS tapes (good grief, I'm old), set up a stack of them in the living room, and began to perfect my own hurdling technique.  Did I become a world class hurdler?  Obviously not (please ask my 8th grade track coach who apparently thought I could channel my inner JJK only to learn that short, chubby white girls are not your best hurdling candidate when he had to come peel me battered, bruised and bloody off the track). 

But it's not the hurdling that matters.  Is the belief that dreams can come true.  The realization that if we set goals and we work hard enough and we want it bad enough, we can make great things happen.  Be it winning 22 Olympic medals, competing without legs against the greatest athletes in the world, winning your country's first medal ever, setting a world record, or just being able to say that you are an Olympian. 

These kids (and Nike's commercial below) remind us that greatness lies within each of us.  It is up to us to go and find  it.