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Olympics

This tag is associated with 8 posts

How to Play on the Big Stage

Four days before the biggest speaking gig of my life, I’m nervous. If the talk goes well, the people in the audience will like me. They will buy my book. They might hire me for more speaking gigs. Stop! What’s wrong with this train of thought? Here’s what’s wrong: It’s all about me. Me, me, […]

Olympics: Was losing games all that wrong?

Let me ask this question in all seriousness: Was it so wrong for four Olympic badminton teams to throw games? To me, the actions of the South Korea, China and Indonesia teams were nothing but a tactic. If their object was to win the gold medal, shouldn’t they be able to maneuver to do i? […]

How Coach Wooden Coached

If you want to be the best, you learn from the best. When it comes to college basketball, John Wooden was the best. That’s why two researchers — Ronald Gallimore and Roland Tharp — made a study of Wooden during practice. They paid particular attention to what Wooden, the longtime UCLA basketball coach, said and […]

Does Playing Sports Help Girls?

At a time when so many women are delivering such electrifying performances at the Winter Olympics, we can find this question especially useful: Does participation in sports make a long-term difference in a woman’s life? An article in the New York Times takes a look. It cites separate studies by two economists. One examines the […]

Sports’ Biggest Story

Through it all … the Olympics … the NBA All-Star Game … the Super Bowl … the biggest sports success story could well be coming from Storrs, Conn. That’s home to the UConn women’s basketball team, which extended its winning streak to 64 games yesterday with a victory over St.John’s. Who dominates like the Huskies […]

World-Class Motivation

With the Olympics coming up, we soon will be seeing people whose skills are world-class. And most of us will be tempted to think that those people live in a different world from us. But that’s not true. In today’s world — especially in today’s economy — everyone needs high-level skills. And to acquire high-level […]

Having Big Dreams

Can someone be too committed to an athletic goal? That’s the question being asked by a young woman I know, a young woman who has won multiple national titles on the collegiate level. Recently I was surprised to see an email from her, saying two things. No. 1, she has a dream of going to […]

Olympic-Style Effort

“Practice being excited.” — Bill Foster Today we’re privileged to interview Heather O’Reilly, a U.S. soccer Olympian. Heather is renowned for the quality of her practice; she treats every contact like it’s her first and her last. Though she is speaking of soccer, her comments can apply to anyone who is trying to become great. […]