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If someone asked me where these olympics were being held, I wouldn't say Italia or Repubblica Italiana. Torino does have a nicer ring to it though.
Realizing that there was no real future that I wanted as an amatuer athlete helped me accept the decision to quit. I realize that I could never go back and be the best now, but for a while I was on par with everyone that is competeing in the sport that I was commited to. Its easy to dream about how good I may have been, but my point is that I'll never know. But I honestly believe that had I talked to a couple more sports psychologists and not soured a little on the internal politics, I could have been a contender.
Some people use the term 'retired young' when they realize they won't make it and leave a sport in a good frame of mind. I made a nice transition from serious athlete to coach to no-longer-part-of-the-sport. I still call it 'quitting' though. I don't know if I would characterize it as regret or not. In a 'real world' sense, I'm better off to not ski anymore. Just an emotional and acedemic exercise of 'what if I was there now'.
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