Olympic Athletes like Entrepreneurs
I love the Olympics. This is interesting since I don't care about any other normal, popular sports like football, basketball, baseball or hockey. I don't care about those at all! I am an Olympic addict though! I know the athletes in some of my favorite sports. I remember how they did 4 years ago, 8 years ago and more. I remember watching the Olympics when I was a kid and who the athetes were then.
It occurred to me that the Olympics is mostly based on individual sports rather than team sports. There are some team sports like relay races, bobsled and volleyball but those are the exception. Most sports are about the individual. They are part of the team of their country but they compete for individual titles. Skiing, snowboarding, speed skating, swimming, these are all individual sports. We have quite a few Olympians from our city right here. I think there are 14 from Alaska in the current Olympics right now. Considering our whole state doesn't even have 750,000 people, that is a lot.
I have always realized I was more attracted to the Olympics than team sports since I grew up in such an isolated environment where everything is done independently. I had no siblings. I had no friends living close by. I had no playmates on a regular basis. There was no school. There were no neighbors close by either. There was total isolation where a family has to be completely self-sufficient. You are responsible for you own food, water, heat, shelter and safety. There are no public services of any kind.
WA is like that family in the wilds of the online world. We are each like the independent athletes at the Olympics. We have to be our own motivation. We are solely responsible for our own success! If we goof up there is no one else to fix our mistake. We have to fix our own mistakes and do whatever it takes to win. Our WA family is there to cheer us on but we have to compete alone. Our website is our own. Our business is our own. Our success is our own!
Olympic athletes also toil away for years in obscurity. There is no flashy team or celebrity status for most of them until they are actually there. They have often worked 10 or 20 years to get there and nobody even knows their name. Suddenly they are known around the world and all the hard work and years of persistence has paid off. They never would have made it if they gave up as unknown nobodies. They had to follow their dream even when no one else understood it.
Happy Olympics and happy creating everyone!
Jessica
Recent Comments
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We always followed the Olympics as a family. It is not so much the same these days as the DVR has taken over family television. But yes, I do follow the Olympics and it does have many similarities to what we do here at the WA. Great topic thank you. Cheers.
Xav.
Many of the Summer sports are still team sports---basketball, gymnastics---individual and team.
Hockey is a winter sport and team sport. What you're currently seeing the skating and snowboarding are individual sports where they train for years to become the best at their sport.
For instance, Shaun White won the first half pike in snowboarding so as long as he takes part in the Olympics he's the face they focus on
Chloe Kim won the half pike and her parent are Korean so she's the face of Snowboarding halfpike
The difference between the Olympians and other sports is that they get focused on every 4 years when the Olympics occur and you never hear about them otherwise. Their glory is sponsorship and advertising $$$$
Yes, but in the individual sports they compete against each other not for each other. They need to beat out other Americans just as much as other countries to win.
In the individual sports you may all be Americans on the "team" but you win alone and often practice alone.
I loved watching Shaun and Chloe both! They were great.
yes, they're competing against each other but they're also competing against themselves to do their best and improve on what they've done in the past.
In snowboarding for instance, they go down the pike 3 times, and each time they go down they're trying to improve each score from the first.
It takes athlete years of practice to become the best at their sport. Look at I think his name is red Gerara who at 17 won in the snowboarding competition the date before the half pike qualifying round started. His parents talked about how he was constantly outside practicing. They initially learn using those boards with the skates on them and also do inline skating when not practicing with a snowboard,
I can remember seeing them practice at Piedmont Park in Atlanta on Inline skates perfecting their skills
Great post Jessica, so true in the end we are all in the competition alone. It's wonderful to have a great community here fr support though, but ultimately we must be self-reliant.
Excellent analogy to Olympic competition, I enjoy them so well very much.
Amazing!! He's just like my idol, Roger Federer. at the rip age of 36...3 Grand Slams out of the last 5!
Yeah, and Shaun had 62 stitches in his face a few years ago after a terrible fall too! He was crying after he won and his Dad said he had never seen him cry!
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Thanks Jessica - well written! ;-)
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)
Thank you Sharlee!