I am doing a series on winning and recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk about it with Carly Patterson, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist.
At the age of 16, Carly Patterson retired at the top of the world – an Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics. We explored with her how she reached the highest levels in her field of endeavor at such a young age. Among the many success factors necessary to win, Carly shared that being resilient was key. Yes, her coaches played a big part in her success, but she emphasized being resilient made all of the difference for her.
She said, “I definitely had to have that passion, commitment, and discipline inside of me to be able to be at the gym for that long every single day, every week. There were days when I did not want to get up and go in. There were great days and there were bad days. I think, for me, along my journey doing those nitty gritty things, going the extra mile, and doing the stuff that a lot of other people are not willing to do to reach that end goal that they have.”
Winning requires resilience.
Carly shared, “I had to deal with being resilient. One example in particular was in 2003. I was getting ready for the world championships, the biggest competition that I was going to be competing in to date. We were six weeks out. My elbow had really been hurting me. I went to the doctor with my coach and found out that it was fractured, and I needed six weeks off. Well, I did not have six weeks to take off. My coach and I decided to take two weeks. It didn’t work out great, but it’s okay. Six weeks passed by. My elbow was okay but not great. When doing my beam dismount, I landed a little bit short. I didn’t have enough power and put my arm back to break the fall. I heard it pop and knew that I had done something bad to it. It immediately started swelling and I was in a bunch of pain. I told my coach. We contemplated whether to give up my spot to compete. I was not 100 percent and in a lot of pain. When we got to California to compete, it was like our team was cursed or something. We had one girl get the flu and was in the bed the whole time. She never got to compete. Two other girls were injured while training – one tore her ACL and another tore her Achilles.”
I asked her to hold her thought and said, “I just want to ask you an honest question. Have you ever felt cursed? Have you ever felt like you were almost there and then bam? It’s like taking one step forward and then getting knocked back two steps. I think we have all felt that at some point. This is a big, big deal because not only were you struggling with stuff, but everybody that was a part of your team was struggling with stuff, too.”
Carly continued, “Yeah, and we were going into this competition as the best in the world. Everyone was thinking we are going to win the team gold. And here we were, walking into the competition all banged up!”
I injected, “So, the closer you were to your goal, it got hard, not easier, as you actually had more to overcome?”
“Yes,” Carly said. “I believe God was testing us.”
The team rallied together and the alternates came in. Carly decided not to give up her spot to compete. She said, “I had come way too far, worked way too hard, and I wanted to do this. I wanted to be a part of the team … especially for the girls that could not compete because of their injuries. I’m so glad that I didn’t give up my spot to compete and that I came and pushed past this pain that I was in and this rough time. We made history in the sport of gymnastics and became the first world women’s team to ever win gold!”
Carly’s story is one of resilience and winning requires resilience.
To view the entire discussion, click here.
Some additional thoughts on resilience.
Resilience makes the difference between winners and losers. It’s not that winners never fail; it’s that they always bounce back from failures. Winners are resilient. Resilience is the ability to bounce back or rebound into shape after being stretched or bent. I like to say, “Blessed are the flexible for they shall bend and not break!”
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