Vancouver Olympics--Day Two 2/13/10: Outlasting Adversity

During the last summer Olympics, my posts related mainly to older athletes performing at the peak.  That will probably be true again, (talking about Michelle Roark at 35 and with six knee surgeries behind her, still making the final round of Ladies moguls, for example) but the lasting impression I have of day one relates to perseverance.  It is a story of Simon Ammann of Switzerland, and JR Celski of the US.  My wife and I were in the stands, at the same end of the rink in Marquette MI in September 2009, when JR hit the wall at Olympic Trials and sustained that terrible leg injury.  I remember clearly the jumble of thoughts:  that it looked like an artery;  that he was so very good; that I could not believe how fast Walter Rusk leaped the wall and came to JR's aid; how surreal it was to think we'd seen JR and his family just that morning as they left and we arrived at the same restaurant...Then last night watching opening ceremonies on television, and seeing the close up of JR's face as the US Team entered the stadium, and thinking how perfectly joyful he looked.  A little over five months of intensive training to recover from that ghastly wound...and what a triumph in the 1500!  I can't think of a more complete comeback in so short a time!  All the way to the finals at 19 and then...a bronze!  A true story of rebounding from disaster.  With Simon Ammann, a different sort of adversity.  At Salt Lake, he'd emerged from relative obscurity to win two golds and then.....seven years on the plateau of frustration.  I'm having trouble dealing with four months!  But his spirit survived intact and today, on the normal hill, a lead coming out of the first round of jumps, and a jump of pure beauty on the second to pull away and become the holder of Vancouver's first gold medal!  Wow.  Two stories, one message: never, ever give up on yourself.