"Winners work at doing things the rest of the population won’t even consider trying."
"When you've paid the price, you expect the gold"
By Denis Waitley, Sept. 21, 2010
One of the most inspirational moments in my years serving as Chairman of Psychology on The U.S. Olympic Committee’s Sports Medicine Council was witnessing the first perfect 10 ever scored by an American gymnast in the summer games, by Mary Lou Retton in the Los Angeles Summer Games in 1984. (Steph's note: this girl was 16 when she won!)
Mary Lou wasn’t born a classic gymnast. She didn’t have the movements of a ballet dancer. She was just 4 feet 9 inches tall, with a compact, muscular body. She said, “I knew I wouldn’t look graceful in floor exercises, or doing those ballerina moves. But I was a good sprinter and I had a lot of power and explosiveness. So I could do some things some of the other girls couldn’t do.”
By the age of 14 she was West Virginia State Champion, and winning gymnastic meets throughout the world. But as young as she was, she was mature enough to realize she needed to do much more. “I needed someone pushing me,” she said. “I needed some other girls around me who were shooting for the same goal I was.”
So, at a time when most teenagers are thinking about anything but commitment, Mary Lou Retton made an enormous sacrifice. She left the comfort of her home in Fairmont, West Virginia, and moved to Houston, into the home of a family she didn’t know, just for the opportunity to train under one of the world’s greatest, but most demanding, gymnastic coaches, Bela Karolyi.
While other kids were watching TV, going to a movie, hanging out with friends, and going on trips, she was practicing four hours a day, seven days a week. Karolyi changed everything she had been doing for eight years, from the way she tumbled to the way she ate. As the Olympic Games drew nearer, she described her day this way, “An eight o’clock workout, then to school, back to the gym for four more hours of work, then homework, then bed.”
A grind? To be sure. Fun? Not much. Then why? Because winners work at doing things the rest of the population won’t even consider trying. She may not have enjoyed the routine, but she loved the sport, the challenge, and the dream. Then, just a few weeks before the summer games, her right knee suddenly locked. Fragments of torn cartilage had broken loose and had become wedged in the knee joint. Less than 10 days after arthroscopic surgery, she was back in the gym for a full workout. There was no time to lose, only time to get ready to win.
In her final event, the vault, Mary Lou needed a 9.95, a near-perfect performance, to tie the Romanian favorite for the gold medal. One writer described her effort this way: “She raced down the line, sprang off the vault, twisted at high altitude, and landed as still as a dropped bar of lead, yet as soft as a springtime butterfly.”
She scored a perfect 10, the ultimate. But to the surprise and awe of spectators, officials and myself, she went ahead and executed the optional, second vault. Incredibly, the result was the same again: a perfect 10.
The only two individuals not surprised were Mary Lou Retton and her coach, Bela Karolyi. He had told her just before her performance: “You’re my little American gold medal winner!”
In an interview, I heard her remark that her self-talk leading up to those two perfect vaults went something like this: “Relax. Concentrate. Thanks for all the car pools, Mom. This vault’s for you. Speed. Explode. Extend. Nail the landing. This is your moment in history. Need a 10, got a 10. Just like practice. Let’s go!”
***
Besides the powerful and obvious reminder: "Winners work at doing things the rest of the population won’t even consider trying" -which I love!-, this article made me think about something else as well. After reading it I looked up Mary Lou Retton on Google and came across an article titled: "Living beyond the illusion of disability".
It stated how many of us are captives, prisoners within the limitations of our own abilities or disabilities. It wasn't just talking about natural or physical disability, like not being able to move the left side of our body, or being very short or having just undergone a surgery, like Mary Lou. It was also talking about the limitations we put on ourselves -mental ones-. It caught my eye, since just today I thought while sitting in Economy class: "How on Earth am I supposed to understand this shit about Economy and how screwed up it is when I don't know much about it firsthand? This teacher is going too fast, argh, besides(prepare for pathetic), I'm just sixteen."
Taaran! I found a self-imposed limitation. It shouldn't be there. But there it is many times so I need to eradicate it.
I think accomplishment has a lot to do with:
1. Working hard
2.Faith. What we believe ourselves to be capable of.
And though it may not be much at times, or nothing at all, Jesus doesn't think so. When we say: "I'm crap." He says: "I love you". And when we say "I can't do it" He says "I can and I'll do it with you"
I'm going to comprehend and learn what my economy teacher talks about without my mind getting lost amongst the facts, terms and examples -determined lil grin-.
"It always amazes me to look at the little, wrinkled brown seeds and think of the rainbows in 'em," said Captain Jim. "When I ponder on them seeds I don't find it nowise hard to believe that we've got souls that'll live in other worlds. You couldn't hardly believe there was life in them tiny things, some no bigger than grains of dust, let alone color and scent, if you hadn't seen the miracle, could you?"- Chapter 18, Anne's House of dreams
