Lesson 177: One Thing

What's the One Thing you are chasing, Readers?  Is it money?  Love?  One more check off your bucket list?    For the elite athlete, often it is an Olympic gold medal.

They look like this for the 2012 London games in case you didn't earn one:

It would be a cool one to have because of the three X's.

Lots of athletes earned them.  Here are a few:

Usain Bolt (yep, I checked, that is his real last name).

The Jamaicans are the new Kenyans, with this medal sweep.

The US Women's soccer team in the Redemption Match against Japan.

In the end putting our only hope into Hope Solo.

And yep, I checked on that one too.  That really is her real name.

Yeah for the Decathletes, Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee earning the gold and silver.

The Slovenians made a respectable showing, too.  Yeah for you My Slovenian Followers!   At this writing on Friday night, to date the Slovenes have earned the most medals per-capita compared to any country.  This is taken from a British news source on line this morning:  

LONDON — Once again, the United States, China and, to a lesser degree, Russia, are battling to become the nation with the biggest haul of Olympic medals. That is no surprise: their teams have the best resources – training facilities and so on – to produce athletes like Michael Phelps and a raft of Michael Jordan-like badminton and table tennis players.

Medals

	●	●	●	Total
USA	39	25	26	90
CHN	37	25	19	81
RUS	13	21	24	58
GBR	25	15	16	56
GER	10	17	11	38

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What is perhaps more compelling are the nations that carry their weight in medals, like Slovenia. The Slovenes have won four medals: gold in judo, silver in track and field and bronze in rowing and shooting. With a population of 2.06 million people, that works out to one medal per 514,385 residents, the best per-capita medal rate among the 59 countries that have won at least one medal through Sunday.

The term "medal counts" reminded me of this funny pinterest pin I found this week:

Here is the Slovenian Judo champion:

She looks more like a Norwegian ski bunny than a Judo champion.  I had to check a couple of sources to make sure I got the correct picture of Urska Zolnir.  I was sure it was correct when I found this one:

This made her Slovenia's first ever Women's gold medalist.

I like the Slovenian team warm ups better than ours.  I bet Ralph Lauren didn't outsource theirs.

Sadly, some of our athletes fell short of their goals.  This beauty was broken hearted and I watched her cry on her Today Show interview the next morning.  This is hurdler Lolo Jones:

She became well known for a tweet she made about her own personal morals.  Unfortunately she finished fourth and will return home medal less.  Some in the media bashed her saying that she was "all image and no talent."  Lolo down over those comments.  You can see the pain on her face in this shot from the interview.  Geez!  Leave the poor girl alone.  

Manteo Mitchell showed a heroic effort for not stopping after breaking his leg in a race, earning the respect of the whole world.  What a team player!  Sometimes even when you lose, you win.

There is no better story in the London games than this one--South African runner Oscar Pistorius.  

Oscar will not be bringing home a medal to his home country either, but in his loss, we all won.  His goal was to compete against able bodied men in the Olympic games, and that he did making it to the semi-finals.  Only two seconds behind the winner is not too shabby of an accomplishment for a man born without bones below the knee. 

At the end of the race, the winner from Grenada, Kirani James, exchanged bibs with him as the ultimate symbol of respect.  Sportsmanship.  Perseverance.  Dedication.  That is what the games are all about.

Some athletes displayed lesser degrees of composure when they didn't win:

This kind of reminds me of Sam when he didn't win his checkers game.  First the tears:

Then the tantrum:

Then came whipping the box at the cameraman.  

Yes, I made him pick them all up, do time in the Naughty Chair, and give me a handwritten apology.

That was last summer though.  My boy has come a long way in a year.  The tantrums are subsiding, but he still does not like to finish second in a race.  

Maybe he should be a gymnast.  He'd fit right in.  See below.

Nobody is perfect.  Even world class athletes.  Sometimes you land on your butt:

And you let the whole world feel your pain with you.  I guess the silver wasn't enough:

Check out this Cold War like glare stare from the disgruntled Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina.  They don't like losing either.

Maybe Russia is looking for a male for their team for the year 2024.  

My little chump finally spent some of his Lemonade Stand earnings the other night.  We went to the dollar store and he picked out fake teeth of all things.  He and his sisters are having lots of fun with them.  The funniest thing is where he keeps them---next to his wallet and calculators in the kitchen drawer that holds the telephone book.  

As you can see, Sam is extremely neat.  He is very orderly and wants his fake teeth lined up "just like this."

Sometimes I ask myself where my children came from?!?!?!?!

The London Olympics close on Sunday and I will be sad to see them end.  Then we will have to turn our attention back to our homeland--we got an election coming up.  This should make for an interesting fall.  I fully expect lots of good blog material.  Again, from pinterest:

One more Thing:  Click on the video below set to the One Thing by British band One Direction.  On it you'll find a collection of some summer shots from the Lamp Post this week:  Sam's fun with his fake teeth and a cardboard box, and some pretty shots of my surroundings.

Find that One Thing that makes you tick, Readers.  Pursue it and don't quit.  Even if you have to get there running on two titanium blades---Oscar did, so you can, too.

Stay inspired,
Eloise