My greatest lesson learned as an Olympian is the understanding that I am human, and the world is mine. As a part of this ecosystem, I discovered that through practice, I can unlock my power. I came into this body to enjoy everything that I desire, not to struggle. Just like sports, my body is a vehicle to find answers, and feel exhilaration to be who I am. Olympians come from all over the world, some are rich, some poor. It is a stage that helps you understand how to focus to make big moves in your life. I have participated several times in the same event (Olympics), yet will still focus on the different aspects to improve each time.
Equatorial Guinean athlete (born 1980)
Showing quotes in randomized order to avoid selection bias. Click Popular for most popular quotes.
I quickly understood that I could fail at both what I love and don’t love. By extrapolating lessons learned in my 100m hurdles, I learned to pinpoint the hurdles outside of my sport. When challenged to seek alignment, I could express unlimited performance, enthusiasm, passion and joy. Thus, I see many of my failures as an expression of resilience, trained consciously or subconsciously.
During the Olympics, when athletes were walking into the stadium for the closing ceremony: regardless of nationalities we walked side by side as one. This scene echoed the movie “the gladiator” when all the wrestlers overcame their differences to battle together. In the end, they understood that teamwork would break the painful circle of hate, which I believe to also be the Olympian’s superpower.