What Sets Olympic Athletes Apart

We can't all be super-agile and win gold medals, but we can learn some lessons from these gifted athletes.

Photo by Jacob Rice on Unsplash

Lately, I’ve been watching more television than usual.

Between the Olympics (the sports) and the Olympics (the politics), there is a LOT of fascinating, historical, mind-boggling and ridiculous weird stuff going on in our world.

Surely, that’s what entertainment is made of, no?

For me, it can all get a bit tiring, repetitive, and l-o-n-g winded. But then when I really focus on what is truly going on, I become an enthusiastic fan of the Olympic games (the sporting type).

So let’s focus on that one for the moment, shall we?

Those athletes! Their athletic prowess is mind-boggling. But more than that, I think, is trying to get inside the head of these incredible athletes.

I can’t help but wonder: What sets them apart from the general pool of so many other gifted athletes? Not everyone makes it to the Olympics…why them?

I think back to my high school days in the late 60s, early 70s. There were no organized sports for girls; just for boys. (I know, it sounds like the Dark Ages, doesn’t it?) Had there been, I sometimes wonder what my high school days would have been like. Would I have been a contender? Felt more self-confident? Had an outlet for my angst, depression, sadness and feelings of inferiority?

I don’t mean to say that I would have made it as far as the Olympics. But with my long legs and athletic body, I was surely meant to do more than just trying to untangle complicated chemistry equations, memorize the timeline of the Peloponnesian war, and perfect my tenses of French, the language I chose to learn just because.

Alas, that didn’t happen. The only opportunities for athletic girls were hitting a tennis ball with a friend or two, street games of kickball and tag and an occasional game of beach volleyball, if we were lucky enough to find one. (Today’s girls have so much more going for them in so many ways, but that’s a story for another time.)

Not everyone, no matter how hard we train, can manage to catapult our bodies through the air blindly nor manage to run at 27 miles per hour. And it certainly takes a special skillset to fearlessly jump over hurdles with the grace of a gazelle or plunge freely into a pool from the height of a three-story building. Speed, strength, endurance, coordination…it’s all there. But what else??

What I’m most interested in is what, other than the obvious athleticism and having genetics on their side, makes an Olympic athlete. What“rules” can we all try to emulate that will give us the ability to perform and live our lives at their deepest and most meaningful?

There’s visualization, goal-setting, concentration, relaxation or mindfulness, an ability to deal with anxiety and stay cool under pressure. In addition to that, there’s:

• Mental clarity

• A consistent routine

• Laser-like focus

• Goal setting

• A reliable support network

• Positive affirmations

Now that the Olympics are over, I tell myself that if I take just one or two of these qualities and work on incorporating them into my daily routine, I’m ahead of the game. After all, life is a sprint, not a marathon, and someone like Noah Lyles has surely taught me grace under pressure.

How about you?