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Barcelona 1992, Olympic games, the one
Olympic in which the U.S.A had one of the best Basketball teams
ever, with names like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Magic
Johnson, Patric Ewing, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and more
featured in the athletes who attended this competition. A place
where In men's artistic gymnastics, Vitaly Scherbo from Belarus,
representing the Unified Team, won six gold medals, including
four on a single day. Five of the six golds were in individual
events, tying Eric Heiden's record for individual gold medals at
a single Olympics (Michael Phelps would tie this record in
2008).
Evelyn Ashford won her fourth Olympic gold medal in the 4x100 meter
relay, making her one of only four female athletes to have
achieved this in history. Linford Christie finally won gold in
the 100m, at 32 years old the oldest champion of the Olympic
100m.
On the 20th anniversary of the Munich massacre and the 500th anniversary
of the Alhambra Decree, Yael Arad became the first Israeli to
win an Olympic medal, winning a silver medal in judo. The next
day, Oren Smadja became Israel's first male medalist, winning a
bronze in the same sport.
Sergey Bubka had won gold in the men's pole vault in Seoul 1988, setting
an Olympic record. He was favored to easily take the gold again,
but he left Barcelona empty-handed, failing to make any height
in the pole vault. He failed in all his attempts. A little over
a month later, in Tokyo, Bubka would vault 20 feet 1 and 1/2
inches - his 32nd world record. (all of the above according to
Wikipedia)
In between all this, the most remembered, was not the ones of those who
won Gold medals, or the ones who broke new records, in fact the
most remembered athlete in Barcelona 1992, is the athlete who’s
record says “Race not finished”. I’m talking about Derek Anthony
Redmond, an English athlete, who had held several records under
his name. During the semi-final race Derek gets ready, now
everyone’s set... and there they go! But about 250 meters from
the finish line, one old injury got him bad, and his hamstring
snapped, throwing him down to the ground in agonizing pain.
Derek felt it was his responsibility to finish that race and
cross the finish line. From the audience, an old man broke
through security and help Derek continue walking in pain to the
finish line, that old man was Derek’s dad. With a 65,000 people
crow, doing a standing ovation, this moment is the one that
buried all the other achievements down, being the highlight of
1992’s Olympic games, in Barcelona.
It is so easy for us as humans to think that because other’s already
cross the finish line, we should stop trying. It is so easy for
us as humans to believe that if we didn’t get the first place,
or didn’t get that A+ at our score sheet we will not be as
important as those who did. Let me tell you
something...sometimes we concentrate in the final award that we
forget what really matters is the process, because even if you
finished last, if you did your best throughout you will be
remembered, and even can be above those who finished first. It
is so simple to feel like a loser when we are down on the
ground, but only the ones to quit and give up are the losers,
but if you are there fighting, giving your best at your job,
school or life situation, your reward will certainly come. I
want you really remember this, life is not a speed race but an
endurance one, and the winners are the ones who get there, no
matter if first or last, it’s just the ones who didn’t give up,
give your best on everything you do, and sooner or later you’ll
get to where you want to get at, and if you fail, get back up on
your feet and continue moving forward. Maybe right now you have
lots of work tasks, your might be recovering from health
problems, you might have problems in class or homework, problems
at home or you just didn’t succeed in your business, don’t you
dare to give up, it’s so easy to give up, I know, I’ve been
there several times, but every time I decide to move forward,
even when I complain thinking “why am I even trying?” later on
I’m happy I did. Don’t feel bad with yourself if others cross
the finish line first, if you dare to continue walking you will
get there. Check the stories of those who totally failed and
kept trying, those who were not number 1 but they dared to
continue walking, and if you do check them you will find names
like : Henry Ford ( Ford Motors ), R.H. Macy (Macy’s store),
Soichiro Honda ( Honda motors ) , Akio Morita (Sony ), Bill
Gates (microsoft), Harland David Sanders (KFC), Walt Disney (
Disney ) and more much more. The key of their success is not
that they were the most brilliant ones or the first places in
everything, but they learned that the only way to get to where
your dreams are is by moving forward. |
