I have loved the Olympics for as long as I can remember. I cut my hair to look like Kerri Strug in 1996 after the U.S. women’s gymnastics team won their first team gold medal. Every two years, I sit on the edge of my seat. I’d watch all day long if I could. When I’m really busy with work during the Olympics, as I have been the past few weeks, my heart breaks a little bit, and I fit what I can into the cracks.
It’s not the medal counts or headlines that get me. Sometimes I don’t even remember who medaled a few days later. It’s the stories and the characters that stick. Others fast-forward through the backstories; I watch them twice. The reason I got that Kerri Strug haircut was because of the way her face looked before and after her vault on an ankle with two torn ligaments. The deep breath she took before making the decision to go for it, and the way her expression lifted and then broke in pain when she landed. She’d dug deep and made a decision that went beyond the exclamations of a coach who had always put her in the shadows behind his star (until it served him to lift her up into the crowd).
I live in search of redeeming main characters: good people struggling, sometimes overcoming, sometimes not—but persisting. The Olympics is chock full of these characters.
These are the stories from the Paris games so far that will stay with me:
The swimmer Caeleb Dressel. After winning five gold medals in Tokyo, he was consumed with messages from an inner voice he calls “the critic,” saying none of it was enough. Then he did years of hard, inside work. And slowly, his relationship with the critic changed. The voice didn’t go away, but their relationship became a “partnership” instead of a “dictatorship.” Without that change, who knows if he could have dug out of disappointing individual events in Paris to deliver one of the fastest butterfly splits in history in his final relay. I know that voice of “the critic” well. Caeleb’s story of learning to partner with it rather than succumb to it has already come back to me in hard moments.
The sprinter Noah Lyles. The way his head fell into his mom’s chest after winning gold in the 100M. The way he congratulated the competitor he thought had beat him with a genuine hug and smile. The way he made sure to have lunch with his family the day of the race. I’ve never heard a runner call themselves an artist, but Noah did, and he has a message I take to heart—about the power and rarity of speaking dreams out loud.
The gymnast Simone Biles. Her years of inner work after Tokyo showed more in the events she didn’t win than those she did. She lost her last event, the floor exercise, to her closest competitor, the Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade. She celebrated hard with Andrade, even bowing to her at the podium.
The long-distance freestyler Katie Ledecky, now in her fourth Olympics. I fell for her when the announcers described her as one of the best people they’d ever met, in or out of the pool. In an interview, she talked about how she still loves the water. As someone who burnt out on distance swimming in high school, I am in awe of her continuing good-willed love of the sport, all these miles later.
Watching the Olympics gives me a lift every time. I watch for the stories of hard work, day after day—not just physical, but emotional and mental. They are the stories I read and write for too.
Absolutely love this, and the Olympics too! I have a very vivid memory of watching ice skating with you in your parent’s living room as kids, and both of us trying to do the various jumps onto and off of the couch. I also remember the 1996 gymnastics team and how exciting it was to watch Kerri Strugg land that last vault on one leg. Incredible! This year, Noah Lyles’s story is amazing, and even more so now that he won bronze in the 200m race two days after testing positive for Covid (with asthma)! Afterwards he said how proud he was of that bronze, in contrast to his disappointment with the same finish in Tokyo, which I think says a lot about his character and growth between the two Games. So many other stories in these games, as well! I just love it! And I love reading your weekly posts - it’s a great way to start my Fridays 😊 Thank you!
Yessssss!! Love this. Didn’t know most of this, as I haven’t been watching as much, but thank you for curating this!!! Gives me goosebumps.
And yeah. Watching Noah lit me UP!! I’m so glad David set his alarm for that one, because watching him jump to the sky when they introduced him and seeing how close that win was…and yes!! Watching him congratulate the other guy…was just…so…cool. Something about his energy and the way he just owned it. I loved it.
And as always, I loved this piece.