FROM GOOD OLE UNCLE VIC

August 2008

    Hello everyone, how are you?

    The answer to last months trivia question: What are the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? The Colossus of Rhodes, The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, The Temple of Artemis, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia and The Lighthouse of Alexandria. Only the Pyramid remains. Those that got it right were: Amanda Courter, John Krainer, Nick Marshall, Gizelle Merced, and Pam Monacelli. This month's trivia question: Who are the only two Olympians to have won gold medals in the same event in four straight Olympics? Turn your answers in to Jami via e-mail at Jami.Mignogna@BrickBodies.com.

This Olympic Moment

    Tokyo, Japan. 1964. The Final of the Men's 10,000 meters (6.2 miles). The field includes Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union, the defending Olympic Champion, World Record Holder Ron Clarke of Australia and Mohamed Gammoudi of Tunisia. Also in the field is an unknown American, a half-Sioux Indian from a reservation in South Dakota, a U.S Marine, Billy Mills.

    Mills is so lightly regarded that he isn't even issued a pair of complimentary team track shoes. On the bus on the way to the stadium he is sitting next to a pretty female sprinter from Poland. They are talking about Bob Hayes of the United States, who had just set a world record in winning the 100 meters. Suddenly she asks him "What is your name and what event do you do?

    "My name is Billy Mills and I will be running in the 10,000 meters today."

    "Really? Who do you think will win?"

    Mills hesitates for a moment and then realizes if he says anyone but himself he has no chance of winning and he replies "I will. I'm gonna win!" The pretty Polish girl just smiles politely.

    When the gun goes off Clarke surges to the front followed by Goumudi. Mills drops in behind. His strategy is simple. Hang with the leaders as long as possible and try to outsprint them in the end.

    At the 5,000 meter mark (3.1 miles) as they call out the splits Mills realizes he has run faster than he has ever run an open 5,000, and he still has 5,000 METERS TO GO! For a moment he feels like quitting. Then he looks up in the stands and sees his wife, Pat, standing in the crowd by the finish line, and, too embarrassed to quit, he TAKES THE LEAD! That way he figures if he does quit at least he can say he led the Olympic Final!

    And that's how it goes for the next 11 laps. Each time he comes around the track he says to himself "Don't quit. Don't quit. One more lap. One more lap." Until finally it's the final lap, the Bell Lap. Gong, gong, gong, gong!

    That's when Clarke makes his move. He sprints by Mills, followed by Gammoudi. When Gammoudi goes by he elbows his way past Mills on the inside forcing Mills out into lane three and causing him to almost fall. Mills begins to feel the race slipping away. He glances over shoulder to see if he can hold on to third and the bronze medal.

    But what happens next even Billy Mills can't explain. Suddenly he feels a great surge of energy. He begins to close on the leaders. He goes from thinking "Don't quit, don't quit" to "I can win. I can win!"

    I remember sitting in my recreation room in Silver Spring, Maryland as an 11 year-old boy watching the race and listening to the call of Curt Gowdy of ABC's Wide World of Sports:

    "Mills is fading. Gammoudi is in first. Clarke is in second. Gammoudi's gonna win it. (Then screaming at the top of his lungs!) Wait a minute! LOOK AT MILLS! LOOK AT MILLS! He's caught Clarke! He's gonna catch Gammoudi! Mills is gonna win it! Billy Mills of the United States will win the 10,000 meters!"

    After the race the Polish girl comes out of the stands and comes running up to Mills with tears in her eyes. "You really did win, didn't you? I am sorry I didn't believe you." He never sees her again.

    In perhaps the greatest upset in Olympic history, Billy Mills set an Olympic Record, and to this day is still the only American ever to win an Olympic 10,000 Meters. He was so unknown that after he won a Japanese official came running up to him and had to ask him his name! His victory is celebrated in ABC's Wide World of Sports' "Thrill of Victory" showing a euphoric Mills crossing the finish line, arms outstretched as the tape breaks across his chest. (You may remember the "Agony of Defeat"-the skier sliding off the ski jump into the crowd!) They made a movie about Mills, sponsored by the Sioux Nation called Running Brave.

    To view a film clip of Mills' epic stretch run click here. (I still get goose bumps every time I watch this film clip)

    How did he do it? How did Mills run almost a minute faster than he had ever run in his life to win an Olympic Gold Medal? He just refused to doubt. On the bus he refused to consider the possibility of anyone winning but himself. He wouldn't let himself quit. "Don't quit, don't quit. One more lap, one more lap." He used positive self talk. "I can win. I can win." And, coming off that last turn he visualized. In his own words, with still 60 meters to go and both Clarke and Gammoudi in front of him, he went from thinking "I can win, I can win" to "I won, I won, I won, I won!"

    Mills is a now a motivational speaker who has actually presented a keynote address to our Brick Bodies staff several years ago. The lessons he learned in athletics and how they relate to real life can best be summoned up in the words of Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If".

    "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them "Hold on!"

    The poem closes with "Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it and—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!"

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY