motivation

watching the olympics always makes me so motivated. these olympic athletes train their whole lives, practicing through numerous injuries and burning through hundreds of thousands of dollars just for those few minutes in the spotlight.

one of the biggest stories of this year's winter olympics is shen and zhao, a pairs figure skating team that came out of retirement to try for a gold medal. what's really great about their story is actually their coach, yao bin, who has basically single handedly built the pairs skating program to the powerhouse it is now. back in the 80s, he and his pairs partner had only pictures to learn their figure skating moves from. during international competitions, they were laughed at for being so bad. out of the five competitions they skated at before retiring, they got last place at four of them...three of them at the world championships, one at the olympics. using these embarrassing experiences, yao bin started coaching and 20 years later, his skaters are all ranked top 10 in the world.

i admit, i'm a very self conscious person. in almost everything i do, i think about how people around me might think of me and how i am being perceived. i can't imagine being in his shoes, to have gone through five competitions being laughed at. i can't imagine even going to ONE competition knowing i would be laughed at. i can't imagine how embarrassed he must have felt knowing he was letting down his country, especially in a culture that stresses saving face and having honor for your country and family. and i can't imagine what it must have been like to sacrifice his personal life (chinese athletes and coaches live in dorms, and he has stated that he's lived away from his family for the past 20 years and wasn't even there for his son's birth and childhood) for a sport that considered him a joke.

i don't know anything about him as a person, nor am i sure i would sacrifice my family to do the same. but i do know that yao bin is one of the most resilient people i've heard of, to have gone through so many years of ridicule and to have accomplished what has has accomplished. so darn motivational...makes you want to go out there and save the world :)