All over the world, our elite athletes have come together, once again, to compete in the Olympic Games. A loud, heartwarming cheer beats the fierce winds in Rio de Janeiro as fans gather to watch their greatest inspirations throw their absolute entirety into a sport they have practiced and worked to perfect their entire lives.
Watch as the United States Olympic teams walk through the tunnel into the opening ceremony. See their faces lit up with promise, success and invincibility. Their muscles surge with raw power, held in by a practiced zeal. Their time will come…their time will come.
When I first watched the Olympic Games as a child, these images…these people on the screen seemed like dreams created solely for our entertainment. Four years pass, they are now real…living, breathing human beings.
Legends.
Fast forward again: Inspirations.
Again.
Again.
Athletes. I see them as they truly are. I have graduated high school, the London Olympics completed one year before. Where are they? These elite athletes? They have competed and completed the greatest trials of their life and yet this new knowledge remains locked inside them. Used as fuel…fire in their training.
I have graduated high school. College awaits. Volleyball packs a bag and joins me in this new experience. The future is clouded, hidden from my knowledge. The list they hand me holds skills and exercises. I fall. I get back up.
How do I pass these requirements? They are new, harder than any requirement I trained for in high school. Walking in the gym door, I try, I pass, yet barely sweep by the required tests.
Sophomore year. The skills are no longer new. I can do them, right?
Right. Better than last year. Still not perfect.
Everything starts new. Inspiration from these Olympic athletes remind me that I must continue on. I know the skills, now I push the skills. How far can I go before the actions become routines which become lifestyles? I can jump, is there a limit? No. We are scared by the unknown. We are scared of new experiences. And yet, once they are new, we do not give up. We do not treat them as new, we treat them as possibilities. A new experience creates millions of paths yet taken. These Olympic athletes are on one of those paths.
Now, as I watch the Rio Olympics, I think toward my own training. I am motivated and inspired by their strength in possibilities. They continue pushing and pushing and then show what they have learned. Yet, when the show is over, they are still not done.
I wish to say thank you to all Olympic athletes. Thank you for providing me with an image of who I can be. You show me that a cartwheel can become a gold medal routine. A pass can win match point in volleyball. Thank you for showing me the need to make myself better. I might not be one of the elite, but I am an athlete and I will continue to create possibilities.
