Did you attend Carnival or watch the Olympic games? If you live in Antigua, perhaps you did both.
While many honored the ancestors by participating in Carnival activities, I swam in the sea and trained Capoeira, where enslaved Africans arrived in Antigua. When I returned home, my gold medalist wife cooked an Olympian recovery meal.
Pause from reading this post and express gratitude for your spouse or romantic partner.
Over the weekend, I sat with my family and viewed the Olympic YouTube channel. We found a library of highlights from the games. Two of my three children talked about competing in a future Olympics.
I encouraged them to pursue their dreams and modeled the necessary discipline to meet this goal by taking them to swim. My son wanted to stay home. Peep his expression in the header picture.
What do you think it takes to become an Olympian? It mandates discipline.
The athletes we admire didn't wake up one day and declare, "I'm going to participate in the Olympics.” They put in countless hours to represent their country on the world stage. The record-breaking athletes train for 35 hours or more each week for years.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Netflix documentary Sprint provides access to the professional track and field world. This week, we witnessed the US athletes featured in the film race in Paris. Sha’ Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles traveled to France.
Richardson placed 2nd in the Women's One Hundred Meters race, and Lyles won by a shoulder’s length in the men’s version.
My daughter admires Richardson’s strength, speed, and personality. Like many of us, she was surprised to see the St. Lucian athlete Julien Alfred beat Richardson and win gold.
Later, we learned about Sha’ Carri's challenges in accessing the warm-up gate before the race. The security delay mix-up prevented her from receiving time to do a proper warm-up.
If Richardson had an opportunity to complete pre-race routines, would she have earned different results?
Who knows?
Would Lyles have won the gold if he didn't lean with his shoulder? Two other runners stepped across the finish line before him in the Men’s One Hundred Meters race.
There’s always a what-if component in sports.
Games, like life, are unpredictable. Some people win, while others lose.
Stay ready is a mantra, but it's challenging to implement. While we can do everything according to plan, unpredictable factors dictate most outcomes.
Olympic boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting are familiar with the controversies surrounding their gender identities. Their years of training didn’t prepare them for the transgender allegations surrounding each of their matches. The media and countless spectators challenged their eligibility to participate.
Last year, the duo failed the International Boxing Association’s gender verification tests to fight other biological women.
Khelif and Yu-Ting dominated their divisions in Paris, which some suggested is related to elevated levels of testosterone. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are central to the lengthy controversy involving gender, sex, and sports.
Which country will leave Paris with the most gold medals? It's leaning as Lyles did with his shoulder toward the US, with China close behind.
After the games, many athletes will resume training schedules to minimize the questions about their abilities to compete again in four years. Will we be here to witness the 2028 Olympics?
Remember, like sports, life is unpredictable. Make time today for passion and purpose activities.
Below are clips from our trip to Atlanta to celebrate my dad's 50 years of ministry. Subscribe here for future reminders to seize the moment.
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