GOLD Medal Mindset
[Music]
in the lore
of the olympics gold medal status is a
pinnacle of a lifetime of hard work
but what goes on behind the gold medal
is not often what it seems
most people just see the athlete
standing up in the podium
looking perfect receiving their medal
amongst adulation
and adoration of the world but in
reality
there’s much heartache and hardship
behind the facade
that many people do not see according to
investopia.com
the international olympic committee
requires that every gold medal contains
a minimum
of six grams of gold so the majority of
gold medals are actually
93 silver but in 2008
that olympic gold medal was 99 silver
with six grams of gold so the true cost
of the olympic gold medal from the
beijing games was actually worth
606 dollars according to the exchange
rate during the games
not exactly the financial windfall that
i’m sure all of you are expecting
just goes to show you that behind every
gold medal is a little bit of a secret
not everything is what it appears to be
let me take you back to 2007.
we had two games left before they are
announcing the women’s world cup roster
i was starting right back for the u.s
women’s national team and we are playing
against canada
in a friendly my task that game was to
make sure that one of the best forwards
in history did not score
and because of her stature i felt like i
needed to play a little bit more
physical
she was five nine around 150 pounds
and i was 5'4 120 pounds soaking wet
the ball was played into our vicinity so
we arrived at the same time from
different vantage points
but due to the fact that the ball was
bouncing and the height differential she
successfully knocked that ball forward
and her foot ended up carrying with
momentum into mine
and i immediately started to spin in the
opposite direction
my plant leg couldn’t handle the torque
they talk about that infamous pop
and i knew immediately it sounds like
two rocks colliding together
i fell out of the ground i started
writhing in pain as my teammates came
and they tried to console me
and as much as it hurt i needed an extra
minute to take in the magnitude of what
that injury meant for me
and it was then and there that i had to
give myself permission to let go
of a dream of starting and playing in my
first ever women’s world cup
i started asking teammates and trainers
and coaches
who the best orthopedic surgeons in the
country were i started going online and
looking at message
boards and i was willing to move
anywhere in the country in order to give
myself the best shot at a smooth surgery
a quick recovery and the best physical
therapy all in the same place
i was already stationed out in hermosa
beach california with national team
residency and decided to stay there
my next decision was the means of repair
and so i opted for an
allograft which is actually tissue from
a donor
i felt like those things all together
were going to give me the best shot in
making the olympic team
which was set to kick off in its opening
game 15 months later
when the news broke that i had torn my
acl and that i wouldn’t be playing in
the women’s world cup
i made the mistake of reading the
comments one person said good
she shouldn’t have been the starter
anyway another said she’ll never make it
back for the olympics with the amount of
talent on this team
i found a quote that really helped me
through the recovery process
it was telling me i can’t and then
watchy worked twice as hard to prove you
wrong
and that became my motto my very first
day home from surgery
i was bedridden my leg in a machine that
kept it on constant motion
and when i wasn’t doing that i was icing
and that was
the repetition that i consistently
repeated
the only time that i got up out of the
bed was to crutch myself to the bathroom
and not to mention that the very first
time that i did that i passed out on the
toilet
needless to say i was completely unable
to take care of myself
and i started to question whether or not
i would ever be able to play soccer
at a high level again i was a mess but
luckily
my then boyfriend now husband who’s also
a professional athlete
said to me heath you get one day one day
to feel sorry for yourself
tomorrow is a brand new start and so he
was right
i threw myself one heck of a pity party
for the rest that day
but i woke up the next day with a brand
new perspective because
feeling sorry for myself was not going
to help me to get back on the field
faster and it was not going to help me
make the olympic team
it was time to own my identity mentality
had helped me to get through injuries
before and was no doubt why i was close
to playing a hundred times for the u.s
women’s national team
i showed up for that first therapy
session the same way that i did for
every practice
with a positive attitude i was willing
and able to
soak up the information of my trainer
omi iwasaki
i was going to put in my full effort and
i was also going to make sure to listen
to my body so i didn’t have any setbacks
as i started to forge ahead in that
journey there comes a time around the
five-month mark where
your therapy is over and you’re just
asked to rest
my therapist had become my crutch but he
was ready for me to leave the nest
and to learn how to fly again
i admit i was scared i was unsure of
myself without my therapist around
and i also had this void of not having
soccer in my life for the very first
time
but it was a great lesson to learn what
we can control
all i had was time now so i was going to
make up for last time
i started taking trips i started going
and seeing doing things that i’d always
dreamt of doing but i had never been
able to because i had been
too busy playing soccer and it also gave
me a great opportunity to see my family
and my friends who i so rarely saw
because they were living on the east
coast
but after a month my body was ready to
start training again and so i needed to
find the best coach around to give me an
opportunity to make that olympic
team luckily james galanis in new jersey
agreed to help me chase my dreams
and just like that quote said we trained
every day
twice a day in the morning it was three
hours
of ball work and working on my
weaknesses so i could become more
well-rounded
and in the evening it was just skills
and when i could start running again we
added a third training session because
i had to do more than my competition to
make that team
fitness and speed had always been my
specialty
but those things weren’t going to come
to the very end in the meantime
i was training like a machine and my
confidence was growing every single day
i was envisioning myself as a starting
right back during the olympics
and believe me there were definitely
days that i never
thought that i would reach my goal but
all i kept telling myself
was just don’t stop
that very first time that i had an
opportunity
to put that usa jersey on and get my
first start
i stepped onto that field with a brand
new appreciation
for the sport that i love
i had no fear as i went sliding on the
wet ground
into my first slide tackle and when i
was able to get into the attack
it was like heaven compared to those
tedious bike rides
or running up a hill against myself
my performance in that game solidified
my spot
if i wouldn’t have been desperate i
wouldn’t have made the olympic team
if i wouldn’t have won gold i still
would have been proud of my personal
growth
by the way i started and played every
minute
of the olympics and i played the best
soccer of my life
and when i stood up there on that podium
i had a brand new appreciation for the
sport that i love and the journey that i
had been on
if i would have given myself permission
to let go of a dream
of playing in the world cup i wouldn’t
have been able to set new goals
to play in the olympics by owning my
identity
it showed me that mentality leads to
success
in any endeavor by learning what we can
control
it showed me how to enjoy life without
soccer
and as with anything don’t ever
stop because grit and resilience are the
secret sauce
that help you go from being a
world-class athlete to being a
world-class champion
and it’s amazing what our brains and our
bodies are capable of
when belief supersedes doubt and when
love of self
conquers fear of trying