Olympic Moment

 

The year was 1996 and the Summer Olympics were in Atlanta. For several years leading up to ’96, I had pursued a spot on the Sports Medicine Team for the Atlanta Olympics.

That included a couple of stints working at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and serving on the sports medicine staff for the Pan-American games and the World University Games.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the sports medicine team for those ’96 Olympic Games in Atlanta, serving primarily at a basketball practice facility with time at the Poly-Clinic in the Olympic Village.

Along this path I did some really cool stuff that was a bit out of my wheelhouse. I worked the National Flat Track Inline Skating Championship and the Taekwando National Championships.  I spent some time with the US Olympic Weightlifting Team.

At the tryouts for the World University Games men’s basketball team, I watched in awe as 15 men, all 6’10” or taller took the floor. It was quite the spectacle. An 18 year old Luke Walton was there as was Coach Roy Williams who was at Kansas at the time.

I sat on a couch eating burned hotdogs with Georgetown legend John Thompson, at the home of the Director of USA Basketball. I have sat on the mat while the Romanian women’s gymnastic team practiced. I saw the Dream Team play, watching from the nosebleed section. I saw Tinker Juarez race mountain bikes.

I made friends with the athletic trainers for the Tunisian men’s volleyball team and for the Yugoslavian basketball team. I met Dikembe Mutombo who sat with men while the Congolese women’s basketball team practice. He had bought them practice uniforms when they arrived in Atlanta with none.

Along the way, I met Bonnie Blair, Evander Holyfield, and Nitro from the original American Gladiator show.  But one of the most impressive athletes I ever met was never famous and never in the Olympics

Her name escapes me but I met her in 1995 at the Olympic Training Center. She had switched to cycling after conquering snow skiing as a several time World Champion. She was in Colorado Springs training for the ’96 Paralympics when she and her riding partner wrecked on the tandem bicycle they were riding.

Completely blind since she was a child, this young lady was stoic as I spent a couple of hours cleaning out her many wounds from the wreck, with her German Shepherd guide dog watching my every move. 

She didn’t flinch as I cleaned out gravel and debris. Her dog made me nervous despite her assurances that he likely would leave me alone unless he thought I was hurting her.

She was the “pusher” on a tandem bicycle, riding with a sighted “driver” who was in front. Can you imagine how terrifying it must be to be in that kind of wreck while totally blind?  She was amazing.

Her snow skiing record was legendary at that time. Under the tutelage of her dad (who was also there watching every move I made as I cleaned her wounds), she became famous for skiing in front of a sighted skier, responding to verbal cues about when to turn.

Prior to her, most blind skiers followed their sighted guide. With her father skiing behind her, she revolutionized the sport before switching to cycling. Oh, and she had a Harvard Ph.D. already and was attending law school at UCLA.

From Indianapolis to Colorado Springs to Atlanta, my own Olympic journey has been amazing, taking this country boy from Loudon, Tennessee to places and experiences he could never have dreamed of—not even in his wildest dreams.

When watching the Olympics in Paris, I will think about the people more than anything, knowing that we share just a little bit of the Olympic history.