Success lessons from Olympic heroes

 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  II Timothy 4:7

In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory, there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.  Eric Liddell

What are the many priceless success lessons we can learn from Olympic heroes? Here are some:

Teamwork  The 1992 USA basketball “Dream Team” led by Michael Jordan, the 2012 US basketball team and the come-from-behind 2012 China gymnastics men’s team all won due to dynamic teamwork.

Perseverance  Asian sports star and entrepreneur Li Ning started training in gymnastics at eight years old, then was selected for China’s national team at age 17. He kept training and winning until at age 21, he won six medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (three of which were golds).

American swimmer Mark Spitz started competing at age six, began training at age nine under swimming coach Sherm Chavoor, who mentored seven Olympic medal winners. Spitz was only 15 when he competed in his first international competition, the 1965 Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, where he won four golds. 

At age 22, he won a then-unprecedented seven gold medals (surpassed only by Michael Phelps in 2008 Beijing) at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 1972, Spitz set new world records in all seven events in which he competed, a record that still stands.

Li Ning and Mark Spitz are the only two examples of what journalist Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers referred to as the “10,000-Hour Rule,” based on a study by Anders Ericsson. Gladwell claims this as key to success in any field, that practicing a specific task for around 10,000 hours can make people world-class successes like self-made billionaire Bill Gates in computers and the Beatles in pop music.

Aim for perfection  Nobody’s perfect, but we should all still try. Romania’s Nadia Comaneci won three gold medals at the 1976 Montreal Olympics at only age 14,  becoming the first gymnast to ever win a perfect 10 score (she got a total of seven perfect 10s). She also became the youngest-ever Olympic gymnastics all-around champion.

Overcome crises and skeptics  Michael Phelps was nine when his parents divorced and he was in the sixth grade when diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, his teen idol, Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, said it was highly unlikely for Phelps to win eight gold medals. Phelps stuck Thorpe’s remarks on his locker as motivation, then disproved Thorpe and other experts by winning a record-shattering eight gold medals.

In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, US athlete Greg Louganis shocked TV viewers worldwide by accidentally slamming his head on the springboard while completing a dive in the preliminary rounds, resulting in a concussion. Amazingly, he recovered and courageously went on to win the gold medal.

Success is the best revenge  The 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire tells the tale of Cambridge-educated British Jew Harold Abraham, who ran to defy anti-Jewish racial prejudice (the other story was that of Scottish Christian Eric Liddell, who ran for the glory of God). Abraham won gold in the 100-meter sprint in the 1924 Paris Olympics and broke the Olympic record.

An extraordinary man who gave his whole life to God and others, Scottish athlete Eric Liddell may be the greatest Olympian of all time.

A black sharecropper’s son, Jesse Owens of the US stunned the world and defied Nazi Germany’s racist Adolf Hitler by winning four gold medals and becoming the biggest star of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

In 1960, Rome Olympics gold medallist Muhammad Ali overcame racial prejudice an political controversies. He was arrested and stripped of his boxing title for refusing to join the US military due to his opposition to the Vietnam War.  

Ali wrote in his 1975 autobiography that he threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a “whites-only” restaurant and fighting with a white gang. Years later, Ali was given a replacement medal during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he earlier lit the torch at the opening ceremony.

After overcoming many crises, Ali would win many victories to become the legendary world heavyweight boxing champion whom Sports Illustrated in 1999 crowned as “Sportsman of the Century.”

Lose with dignity  China’s legendary track superstar and world’s best hurdler Liu Xiang lost in the 2012 London Olympics. He knocked over the first hurdle, injured his right ankle and inflamed an Achilles tendon injury which in 2008 ruined his medal hopes at the Beijing Olympics.

Despite the shocking fall, Liu stood up and painfully hopped on his left foot all the way down the remainder of the track in a symbolic completion of the race. He then stopped to kiss the final hurdle and was taken away in a wheelchair. 

Simon N. Ricketts of The Guardian said: “A cracking bit of Olympic spirit. Hurdler Liu Xiang, despite injury, goes back to complete the 110-meter hurdles.” Trinidad and Tobago’s former world sprint champion and ESPN sportscaster said: “The 110 hurdles isn’t as fun without Liu Xiang. Always thought he was amazing to watch.” BBC quoted Liu’s winning competitor, Great Britain’s hurdler Andy Turner saying, “In my opinion, Liu Xiang is the greatest hurdler ever.”

Winning beyond gold and glory  2012 London Olympics chief and former athlete Sebastian Coe said of Michael Phelps after the latter won a record 19th Olympic medal: “I think you can say it is self-evident that he is the most successful. I am not sure he is the greatest.” I agree with Coe, because I personally believe the greatest Olympian was the heroic Scottish athlete Eric Henry Liddell.

Liddell was one of two athletes whose stories became the excellent movie Chariots of Fire. Even officially atheist China called him “China’s first Olympic champion” due to his birth, work and death in that Asian country.

A devout Christian, Liddell made world headlines in the 1924 Paris Olympics for refusing to race on a Sunday because it was the Sabbath day and was forced to withdraw from his favorite event  the 100 meters.

Though unfavored in the 400-meter race, Liddell wanted to compete. As he prepared near the starting blocks, an American slipped a piece of paper in his hand with the Bible verse from 1 Samuel 2:30 saying: “Those who honour me I will honour.” Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand. He won and broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds.

Instead of seeking success after Olympic glory, Liddell went to wartorn China to work as a missionary, following in the footsteps of his father. He worked as a chemistry and sports teacher for a boys’ school.

When the Japanese armies invaded, he sent his wife and kids to Canada but stayed in Tianjin City to continue his mission. Once in 1938, Liddell heard that a wounded Chinese soldier lay helpless in a temple 20 miles from the mission hospital. He cycled 20 miles of rough terrain to help him and found another injured soldier who had survived a Japanese execution. He made a makeshift cart and pushed both men to the hospital.

When Liddell was detained at an internment camp, he worked tirelessly  helping the elderly, conducting Bible studies, teaching kids lessons or organizing sports. In a prisoner exchange bargain, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arranged for his release, but Liddell selflessly gave up his freedom to let a pregnant woman leave instead.

Liddell became sick inside the prison camp in 1944 and died on February 21, 1945 at age 43. He never saw his third child, Maureen Liddell.

A fellow prisoner, Stephen Metcalfe, later wrote about Liddell: “He gave me two things. One was his worn-out running shoes, but the best thing he gave me was his baton of forgiveness. He taught me to love my enemies, the Japanese, and to pray for them.”

He was an extraordinary man who gave his whole life to God and for others; I admire the Scottish athlete Eric Liddell as the greatest Olympian of all time.

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