Bossnass

I used to ski competitively. Freestyle (moguls).

Jen Heil used to be a pretty good friend of mine. Her coach, a friend and mentor of mine, spoke at my wedding last august. I went to the Canada Games in ’99 and carried her in on my shoulders during the opening ceremonies because she was too short to see everything. I made the Alberta team the same year that she did, but I didn’t make the national team. I blew my knee, had a poor season, and I quit.

I used to live with one of the Canadian aerialists. I remember when ‘wookie’ made the team. I’ve had beer and wings with them.

Most the male mogul competitors from the US and Canada, I’ve skied against. And back in the day, I placed ahead of them in competitions. I remember barely loosing a dual mogul run against Jeremy Bloom, the biggest American contender. I remember placing ahead of a Travis Meyer. I lost track of how many times I’ve skied against Chris Wong and the other Canadians. A guy is skiing for Australia, but he used to be Canadian and I skied an entire year where he was in every competition I was in. He was better, but I wasn’t far behind.

My heart and body weren’t committed, I couldn’t get into the right frame of mind, and I believe it was the correct choice to quit. But on days like today, when Jenn wins Olympic Gold, I wonder what could have been.

ratbastid

I remember watching the Olympics one year (maybe it was Los Angeles?), watching the men's gymnastics, and realizing that I couldn't do that. Not just that who I am now couldn't do that, but that in order to have ever been somebody who could do that, I would have had to start fifteen years earlier. It was a really profound moment for me, when I realized that something wasn't possible anymore.

Incidentally, I went to a high school in Salt Lake City that had a very strong competitive ski program. Picabo Street was in the class a year ahead of me, and Hillary Lindh was a couple years ahead of her.

snowy

My grandmother was an Olympic class swimmer in her younger years. She could have easily gone on to the Olympics in 1940 or 1944, but both years were cancelled due to World War II (she lived in the Netherlands at the time). By the time the 1948 Games came around, she was married with a child and had given up her Olympic dreams.

She must have wondered occasionally what might have been, but knowing her she never wasted too much time on it. She swam regularly up until her diagnosis with Alzheimer's, and won the Red Cross Swim Instructor of the Year award several times. Instead of focusing on the past, she worked to help young swimmers improve their skills. She passed on her skills to all of her descendents in one way or another: both my father and uncle were lifeguards in Miami, my cousins have both lifeguarded, and I enjoy swimming more than any other form of exercise (though I have no finesse).

My grandmother is one of the few people I know of who have had Olympic dreams that I actually believe would have made it to the podium. I'm not saying that because I am her granddaughter, I'm saying that because the lady had a will of iron, a spine of steel, and a drive to be the best that lasted well into her diagnosis with Alzheimer's.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Kadath

A girl I went to high school was a swimmer in the 96 Olympics. She did that, and then she went on and had a regular life. That's the problem/glory of the Olympics. It is, and then it's gone, and all you have is the memories, and maybe some metal in your home, but no one cares or remembers except you. It's the crucible where all the greatest athletes burn and then are replaced four years later.

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it's quiet in here

The_Jazz

When I was a senior in high school, I was a nationally competitive cross country and track runner. There were a couple of other guys in town that were in my league, and we did a lot of training run together. Neither of them ever amounted to any more than I did, but there was a freshman that came along that was a little slower than us but still the fastest freshman in a long, long time. He was 3rd in the region which was the year that I won it, and he qualified for state as an individual, which was a pretty big deal. My friends and I went on to college careers (vaguely disapointing in my case), but that freshman went on to win 2 state cross country titles and about 6 or 7 track championships. He went to a D-I school on a full scholarship (both of my friends did the same, actually) and won an NCAA championship and then ran in 2 World Championships and the Atlanta games. Being American and a distance runner, specifically the steeplechase which is absolutely owned by the Kenyans, he didn't amount to much, although he did make the finals.

Looking back, I probably would have rooted for him if he wasn't such an arrogant little shit.

My college track and XC coach was 4th in the pole vault trials in '80, but Carter had already ruled out sending a team by the time those rolled around, so it's open to debate whether or not he would have finished that low. He had 2 of the top 10 jumps that year. He's got lots of hardware to show for it, and most track geeks remember him.

highthief

No such place as "Turin". It's "Torino".

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Si vis pacem parabellum.

Bossnass

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'.

Rodney

We all think about might-have-beens. Bossnass, it sounds like your decision was reasonably thought out, though. What I don't understand are people who go all the way, then turn their back on it:

My wife likes to tell about a man she once worked with at a large, evil bank that shall remain nameless (except for its initials BofA, hey, nobody'll guess). He was in his 20s, an exec, and had dreams of "climbing the corporate ladder." But he was also a top waterpolo playerwho had made the Olympic team. No ifs or buts -- he had _made the team._

Come the Olympics, the bank offered him a leave of absence -- but they wouldn't guarantee that they would hold his job for him. Nice folks.

All his coworkers told him: screw the bank, take the risk, you'll never get another chance like this. But he chose to turn down his trip to the Olympics, trusting in his ability and the opportunities the bank would give him once they recognized his merit.

They laid him off a year later in a reorg.

I sometime wonder if _he_ ever dreams about the choice he made.

DDDDave

Glory days well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days


Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight
And I’m going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it
But I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of, well time slips away
And leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of glory days

Glory days well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days



Lyrics and music by the Boss

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I am just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe...

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." - Thoreau

"Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm" - Emerson