Article September 11, 2000 Issue

Living the Olympic spirit—athlete or not

"Once I overcome this final obstacle, nothing can prevent me from having a good race."

Name removed by request

When I was a child, watching athletes receive an Olympic medal and seeing the tears well up in their eyes as they listened to their national anthem moved and enthralled me. I wanted so much to reach that pinnacle of achievement.

A few years ago, this childhood dream began to come true when I decided to train full time to make the 2002 United States Olympic cross-country skiing team. I'm still working toward this goal, but it has been interesting to see how my perspective on it has changed.

Before, my concept of the Olympics was totally focused on the podium—on winning medals. Now, I'm realizing that the podium is only the culmination of many victories, fought and won when no one is watching, cheering, or praising you. And each of those smaller victories requires the same Olympic spirit as the actual event. And this has made me realize that you don't need to compete in the Olympics to imbibe the Olympic spirit. You don't even need to be an athlete!

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