USA Olympic Stories

The Road to Beijing will be fraught with roadblocks for many of the US Olympic hopefuls. The daily grind on the body alone can wear out the psyche, but add into the mix rips, tears, sprains and surgeries and you have an athlete who is not only emotionally exhausted but physically challenged as well.

Over the past five months I have interviewed many of the US athletes here in Southern California and a theme is developing rapidly that differentiates them from the professional ahletes that I find myself with often. Emotion. The Road to Beijing is paved with emotion.

Entering into the Olympic arena for the Opening Ceremonies is a path that only a chosen few out of our 9 billion on this planet will ever take. To represent one's country in peaceful competition can create goosebumps on the arms of even the average spectator. Every step along the road becomes larger than life and the athetes carry our hearts with them as they struggle to overcome human weakness and rise to win the coveted Holy Grail, the Olympic Gold Medal. Through them we realize our Olympic dream, for one brief moment in time, our Olympians hold our nation in a grip of a fever, we are overcome with emotion by the beauty of athletic performance and we are one.

On August 8th at 8:08:08 in 2008, The Beijing Games open and the eyes of the world will be watching. For that breif moment, humanity exhibits achievement that will bring tears to the eyes of even the casual sports fan. Dreams will shatter, hearts will break, but for a chosen few, Gold. Silver. Bronze.

I am writing this blog because I produce and report for a show called, "The Road to Beijing" which is distrbuted by IEC in Sports in Stockholm, Sweden. Every week I am with an Olympic hopeful. I wanted to pass on my insights into our Olympians for anyone who might be interested in learning from them on how to find their inner Gold.