There were a series of events that prompted me to look back at what truly defines an athlete. Not one who goes on smooth sailing through life, bags the prizes, and basks in the adoration of fans. No. It's one who gets side-swiped by life, run over but gets back up and throws it down through the pain and odds.
One of these events is from this year's Tour De France. Of Dutch cyclist Johnny Hoogerland in a breakaway from the pelaton going for the stage win when he and Juan Antonio Flecha got side-swiped by a careless driver. Flecha received the major impact hitting the road at full speed but Hoogerland took the brunt of the crash, landing on a barb wire fence.
The aftermath of Hoogerland's brush with a barbwire fence.
Astoundingly, both Hoogerland and Flecha picked themselves up and crawled to the finish. Hoogerland received 88 stitches for his escapade and the win of the pokadot jersey.
Three weeks ago, I got to meet Noelle Pikas-Pace at the annual UAHPERD conference up in Park City. Noelle's a skeleton racer who competed from 2000 to 2010.
She won three medals at the FIBT World Championships with a gold and two silvers.
After winning the silver medal in the women's skeleton event at the 2005 FIBT World Championships in Calgary, she emerged as one of the favorites to medal at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Turin. That would change on October 19, 2005 at the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in Calgary when she broke her right leg after she and her teammates were hit by a four-man bobsleigh that failed to brake after the finish line. The bobsleigh ejected out of the end of the track and hit Noelle and teammate Lea Ann Parsley, narrowly missing three other teammates. She suffered a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula, and underwent surgery to repair her broken leg, including an insertion of a titanium rod in her right leg. Instead of quitting and wallowing in her predicament, she started aggressive physical therapy and returned to competition seven weeks later at Igls, Austria, finishing 20th.
In 2007, Noelle went on to win World Championships, by the largest margin in history, while breaking the track record in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and again becoming the first American Woman to obtain the title of World Champion in the sport of skeleton.
I know that most of us regular Joes wouldn't face anything this dramatic but we do get hit by life in our own unique ways. Take Tanleng for example. She had her foot dislocated and leg broken in Feb. When it happened, we just couldn't believe how she's gonna get back to normal function, let alone do the things she loves.
But in the end, we got it fixed...with two plates and nine screws.
Those months of recovery were tough on both of us. But through all the pain, pills and tears, she's now back in action. Recently, she sent a 12d and flashed a 12b in a day. 12s are usual fare now and she about to send one of the stoutest 13a in American Fork.
Strangely, we both now have the same story to tell with our right foot. Though I haven't broken my leg, I have dislocated it bouldering in SAFRA Bukit Merah in 1998. Had it fixed with surgery and was out of action away from climbing for a year. During that time, I was getting really good at Counter Strike, school and dating Tanleng. It helped that my wife, who was my girlfriend then, had so much love for climbing that I got drawn back into climbing. Progress came slow with an impaired right leg but it all worked out in the end. I started to love climbing all over again and got in shape at the same time. Very good shape....especially when it comes to bouldering. And when all the tertiary institutions like NUS, NTU and SP started their inaugural series of bouldering comps, I pretty much won every single one they put out.
Here are some of the hardware my brother randomly found in my storage stash in Spore. Don't really know where the rest are. Nevertheless, this is just a reminder that those years from 2000-2002, were my golden times as a competitive climber. I also got sent to the first Asian Championship for bouldering in 2001 and made it to the Finals alongside the usual Japs and Koreans. That was a proud moment.
And with every tide of success, there'll always be a lifespan for every athlete. Having a full time job took its toll but amidst the madness of work, I managed on last hurrah in the South East Asia Climbing Federation(SEACF) Circuit in Malaysia.
Jay recently reported on his
blog that the SEACF circuit have been revived this year. Proud that he won the gold and that once again, Spore has a young and strong contingent.
Anyway, if you're reading this and you're in the pits of despair surrounding the circumstances of your situation, you just got to make up your mind about where to go from here. Remain in despair, or pick yourself up.
