6 Inspirational Athlete Stories Are Worth Sharing.
Any athlete who reaches the highest level of competition has overcome something, these 6 are a reminder of sometimes just how much and the good that can come from it.
Welcome to edition 190 of The Physical Movement.
With all the stories of the challenges in youth sport, the decline in participation, the rise in costs, the poor physical health of our youth, the abuses, the elitism and the injustices, there remains many massive positives from sport participation.
One of the positives is the teaching of the value of perseverance and battling through adversity. The lessons of not giving up, of practice and discipline in the pursuit of improvement. One of the greatest tools we have in sport to teach these lessons is history and the athletes that have passed before us.
Those who have overcome, those who have faced adversity, and those who have persisted while facing very difficult challenges in pursuing their passion.
While former pro basketball player Charles Barkley was in a 1993 Nike commercial speaking out that athletes should not be role models, that parents should, the reality is athletes are put on a pedestal and viewed differently by our youth.
The reality is many, many athletes have stories worth sharing/remembering.
Many have used their platform (especially in a modern age) for good and those stories should be shared and learned from. Call them history lessons in sport for positive influence of our youth.
Here are some inspirational athletes worth learning about and sharing their stories:
Jim Thorpe.
Called by many the “greatest athlete to ever live” , Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was a indigenous track, football and baseball athlete who dominated the 1912 Olympics, played in the World Series and in the NFL. He excelled while also facing overbearing racism, discrimination, and exploitation. Thorpe’s story is a history lesson on how cultures were treated but also one of determination, perseverance and unbelievable athleticism.
Arthur Ashe.
Arthur Ashe was a world class professional tennis player in the 1970’s and 80’s, who became a tireless activist and advocate against racism and injustice. To this day he is only black man to win Wimbledon (1979) and overcame overt racism and prejudice to excel in tennis.
In 1983, during heart bypass surgery, Ashe contracted the HIV virus via blood transfusion.
In 1983, he co-founded Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid, which worked toward raising awareness of Apartheid policies and lobbying for sanctions and embargoes against the South African government.
In 1993 he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery to urban minority populations.
He passed away in 1993.
In 2007 Arthur Ashe was listed at #14 in USA Today’s list of 25 Most Inspiring People of the Last 25 Years.
The Arthur Ashe story is worthy of sharing with our younger generation. More on his life here.
Roger Federer.
Recently retired Roger Federer is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He turned professional at just 17 years old and won 20 Grand Slam titles over his 24-year career. He won 20 Grand Slam men’s singles championships, including one French Open, five US Opens, six Australian Opens, and a record eight Wimbledon titles. Federer was the world’s #1 ranked player for 237 straight weeks and 300 weeks overall, and he won 1,251 of the 1,526 matches he played in his career — a ridiculous 82%.
Mike Fahey, who heads a Boston-based marketing firm, told the New York Times:
“Roger is forever a gentleman. He doesn’t throw tantrums. Doesn’t hit ball people. Doesn’t abuse umpires. He’s the ultimate class act.”
While his tennis career ranks among the best ever, his contributions off the court may be even more impressive.
He opened the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003, which provides grants for education, sports, and other projects to countries with 15% or higher child mortality rates.
Federer has already raised more than $50 million for the foundation and personally donated $15 million to open more than 80 schools in Africa. And Federer also spent more than $1 million to provide 64,000 African children meals while schools were closed during the pandemic.
Roger Federer is an athlete who always competed with class, manners and used his success to also benefit others.
Dara Torres.
Dara Torres, the most decorated US female Olympic athlete of all-time, NY Times best-selling author, fitness advocate, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and mother, started her career on the international stage by breaking her first world record at the age of 15. This incredible feat was accomplished on the way to her first of 5 Olympic appearances, in Los Angeles at the 1984 Games.
An Olympic swimmer over 40 years old was unheard of until Dara Torres made it to the Olympic games at age 41 and won 3 silver medals.
She became the oldest swimmer to ever compete in the games and her come back to the sport is still incredibly inspirational.
But success in the pool early on in her career hid struggles with a serious eating disorder.
Torres is the author of the book, ‘Age is just a number’.
Inspirational quotes by Dara Torres:
“The water doesn’t know how old you are.”
“Never put an age limit on your dreams.”
Cathy Freeman.
As an Indigenous athlete, Cathy Freeman was no stranger to racial prejudice as she grew up. She easily recalls races where she would receive no acknowledgment while white Australia girls who she had beat received trophies.
Despite this discrimination Cathy Freeman rose quickly in the ranks of Australia runners and was the first Indigenous Australian to represent Australia and win gold in the Olympic Games.
In 2007 Freeman established the Catherine Freeman Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on Indigenous children in Australia.
More info on Cathy Freeman here.
Jim Abbott.
Abbott, out of Flint, Michigan, pitched 10 years in the Major Leagues, finishing third in the American League Cy Young Award voting for the Angels in 1991 before he got to New York and threw that no-hitter. He pitched the final game of the '88 Olympics in Seoul when baseball was a demonstration sport, and helped the United States win a gold medal. Abbott was the first baseball player to win the Sullivan Award as the best amateur athlete in America.
What makes Abbott, a left-hander, so special is that he managed to do it despite being born without a right hand.