Lesson Learned

It's Olympics' time and it's once again time for me to feel like I'm inadequate and very out of shape, but it's also time to be inspired and energized. That's what happened over the past couple of (time delayed) nights, with the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team.

It's very true that I have no idea how the scoring works, what skills are needed, or, heaven, forbid what the names of the dismounts are but I was still inspired by those young women's character and maturity.

For those of you who have been living under a rock, or for some other reason didn't get to catch the competition, the team was favored to win it all and they were led by their all around world champion, Jordyn Wieber. After the first day of competition on Sunday the team had qualified first with 3 of the best scores of all the women so those 3 should have been able to "move on" to complete individually in the "all around" competition to see who is deemed the best woman gymnast in the world. Only there was one problem; each team is limited to only 2 participants, Jordyn was outscored by her two teammates Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas which means she will not get a chance to participate in the all around and defend her crown. I can understand how this alone could be devastating to a world class athlete who has the eyes of the world on them but the story does not end there, this was only a qualifying event, they still had to compete in the team finals, they needed their leader, Jordyn Wieber.

Last night the U.S. Women's Olympic team dominated the competition from the start. It would have been too scripted to say that Wieber got them started, not exactly. McKayla Maroney, flew through the air and landed (at least to this untrained eye) a perfect and beautiful vault, but Wieber still scored high and gave for the team. That sacrifice followed her through her other two events as well and the women claimed gold.

In a sense it reminded me a lot about our my life, I often "play" for myself but have to do so in the context of the team. I want so much for my individual "gold" but often fall short either to someone on my team or by an unknown opponent. The 'lesson learned' is to keep my character and work for the team. Wieber's reminder was truly inspiring and was a great reminder of what it means to be an American, while individual effort and accomplishment may drive us, we cannot do it alone and we must work with each other to earn our "golds".