Attitude of an Olympian

What amazing focus. The training regimen. The schedule. The diet. The total ambition to be the world's best at one thing. Or if you're Michael Phelps, the best at MANY things. Of course, all have to do with swimming. But to me, there's a lot of difference between the different swimming strokes and distances. And the gymnasts aren't just good at one apparatus, but several of them. And of course the decathlon and heptathlon athletes have to be good at several track and field events. I find it all amazing.

Michael Phelps is at his 3rd Olympics and he's not even 25. I am such a slacker!

I love to watch the Olympics, especially the summer Olympics. I love the pageantry of opening ceremonies. I love the inspirational stories. I love to see the teams support each other. I love it all. And I really love seeing so many people root for their countries. Not professional teams, but COUNTRIES. I love the obvious, outward shows of patriotism.

I have a Jeff story about the Olympics. This is on my website, but I'm going to include it here too because I like it so much. Enjoy!

Olympic Dreams

During the summer of 1996, much like everyone else in the world, Jeff and I spent a lot of time watching the Olympics. That was the year that the Magnificent Seven did so well in gymnastics and the Dream Team won another basketball gold. At one point, Jeff says to me, "Do you think I could go to the Olympics?" To which I replied, "Baby, it's WAY too late to get tickets to the Olympics now. I'm sure they've been sold out for months. But the Winter Olympics are in two years in Utah. Maybe we could make plans to go to some of those events." Being that we lived in Colorado at the time, it seemed like a reasonable suggestion.

But that wasn't at all what Jeff had in mind. He came back with, "I don't want to WATCH; I want to PLAY. Do you think I could go to the Olympics?"

Keep in mind, in '96, Jeff was five. I find it impressive that he would even consider being an Olympian. I'd watched all kinds of Olympic events every four years my entire life and I can honestly say that it NEVER crossed my mind to actually BE an Olympian. But here is my five-year-old considering it. Wow. Made me smile.

So, I told him that if he was serious and was willing to put forth the effort, I most definitely thought that he could be an Olympian. Then I asked him what event he thought he'd compete in. Of course, he said basketball. I didn't want to burst his balloon, but the current Dream Team was made up of the twelve best players in the NBA...not just 12 great players...not just 12 great guys who liked to play decent basketball. No, we're talking the 12 BEST basketball players in the NBA.

Okay, it's impossible to know how good Jeff would be at basketball by looking into those five-year-old eyes. But he'd have to be REALLY good at a VERY young age, get picked on every AAU and/or travel team he was eligible for, get signed to a college during his JUNIOR year in high school, start for a college team as a FRESHMAN, and hope that he's the BEST, SHORT point guard to come out of his graduating class...in order to have a shot at even being CONSIDERED for the NBA. After a couple/few years of playing in the league, he just MIGHT be considered for a position on the national team. So, it was a long shot, to say the least.

I subtly suggested that he consider archery or maybe steeplechase.