Thanks to his mentor Bill Cleary, throughout his training Mark Fusco focused on representing his country and trying to win a gold medal. What he ended up learning, was that it takes a tremendous sacrifice to be prepared to win, not only in sports. He learned that on a given day "the puck rolls one way or the other " and that you can win or lose. He doesn't think about his NHL career often, but he still finds himself thinking about what he learned at the Olympics everyday: how to compete with style and grace and how to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat.
The main thing that Jim Herberich learned at the Olympics was that you have to be ready to capitalize on opportunities. His entire Olympic career started as a joke, an opportunity he took up and ended up playing in the games. Being prepared means more than being in the right place at the right time, it also means seizing on the chance when it does come.
Growing up with an amputated leg in San Diego, Bonnie St. John never could have imagined she'd become the first African American to win a gold medal in skiing. What she learned was to dream big and go for it. After skiing on one leg nothing, no opportunity or chance, scares her. She found that to go for long shots and have big dreams you need to come through with consistent actions, be able to manage a "portfolio of dreams " and put in the right amount of effort.
Walking in the closing ceremonies and seeing the torch, Samantha Harvey snapped out of her sadness at her lost medal hopes. As a very tangible symbol of fantastic opportunity, the torch made her feel very lucky just to have participated. Unlike any other realm, the Olympics let her step away from her immediate concerns and look at the larger ideal and she realized that it was a remarkable gift to be able to participate on that level.
Loving hockey and the experience to get that point, Ted Donato never felt that he had to sacrifice a great a deal to arrive at the Olympics. One thing he's proud of himself was being able to enjoy it while it was going on. He remembers being at the opening ceremonies and feeling a part of something much bigger with the world spotlight on the games. The experience is still very much a part of "who I am ", he adds, and he is still proud to be able to wear the jersey. He believes he'll always be "very humble " to have had that opportunity.
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