I had tickets to be a spectator at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. They were for the 3m springboard men’s final (happening on August 3rd) here in Tokyo. I was super excited as I, myself, also dove for 10 years when I was younger (definitely not to the caliber that Olympians do though…). So needless to say, I was disappointed to not be able to see the event live, however, I have been able to view many of the events thanks to the website, gorin.jp.
I was thrilled to see my home country, the USA, win the silver medal in the men’s synchro 3m springboard competition and I also heard the women won in the synchro 10m platform competition yesterday! Congratulations to Delaney Schnell, Jessica Parratto, Michael Hixon, and Andrew Capobianco! Awesome job!
However, one of the most moving (pun intended!) diving competitions this Games, was the men’s synchro 10m platform competition! Great Britain won the gold from the reigning Chinese team.
The True Spirit of the Olympics
This was a special win. Not only was it Matty Lee’s first Olympic Games but it was Tom Daley’s fourth Olympics and perhaps his last chance, although this isn’t confirmed, for him to win the gold medal. This is a goal he has wanted for 20 years! I watched an interview with him and he said that he just knew that he was going to win a gold medal at the Olympics and now, finally, he has materialized that dream.
Thinking back, I often hear this type of sentiment from people who do great things. Many of them describe that even before they began they knew that they were going to achieve something great. They could see it, they knew it was possible, and therefore they could work hard for it.
Equally important, why don’t we take this Olympic medalist’s thinking as our own??? I often hear, “I can’t…” when it comes to English but what if we just say,
“I can. I am going to speak English.”
Oh, the great things we could do!
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Image by Angelo Giordano from Pixabay