I went out to the OTC to learn and see what the world’s best had to offer in terms of treatment. I wanted to see the best of best athletes and feel their energy and their general vibe while they get ready to compete. In my journey, I learned something much greater.
It all started with a sweet girl with flaming red hair. She had had eight surgeries, lost her dad to cancer, got into an accident, broke up with her significant other, all in the months leading up to the Olympics.
What did she do?
She competed in the Olympics and almost medaled. I met her 9 weeks after her 9th surgery. It was a particularly nasty surgery and extremely painful both surgically and for recovery. She has been in pain every day for the past nine weeks and this is her second surgery of this type. And yet, she has this radiant smile and loves people and fights to get back into her sport. Of course, she couldn’t pick a safe sport like archery or curling. She chose skeleton.
I never really knew much about skeleton until I met her. I have now come to learn that you are on your stomach, flying forward, head first, trying your best to hold your head up to see what is coming. It is scary and the athletes have to overcome that fear with every practice and every competition. When I was treating my new red headed friend, she didn’t really like the terms face up or face down or on your back or on your stomach. She prefers to have everything in her life as a positive. She said when I want her on her back, say luge and when I want her on her stomach, say skeleton. I agreed without giving it much thought at the time.
What I see now is that even though both sports are extremely dangerous and you really never know what is coming, the only thing you can do in life is to hold your head up. Even when you crash, you can recover and it is time to once again hold your head up and see what is flying at you from around the bend.