Another age-defying moment in the Olympics

Like Dara Torres in her silver medal finish in the 50m freestyle, there was another age-defying moment in Olympics with Oksana Chusovitina of Germany winning the silver in the vault event finals. Chusovitina is now 33 years old, a virtual old-timer in a sport where the 20s are the norm for retiring. I find it incredibly amazing as well as her story of so much change and helping her son battle against leukemia.

Though I take nothing away from any of the Olympics medal winners--they've all worked hard, but I love hearing these types of stories of beating against the odds. I think it just gives a lot of inspiration to people.

So what's in a name?

What's in a name really? It's kind of funny this topic can about since I recently read an article about how people decide on naming their dogs. According to Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, a female Thai weightlifter, this was part of the difference in her winning the gold medal in the 53kg weight division. By the way, I have absolutely no clue how you say that name. I don't even want to attempt it. If she changed her name to this, I don't even want to think about what it was before that.

I first heard from my father (I don't watch weightlifting) that she had gone to a fortune teller who told her to change her name. She did, and then she won. This article from the New York Times doesn't say much other than she gave some credit for her victory to the fortune teller.

This got me thinking about the importance of names. In our society, we name many things--our kids, our pets, different brands of products, some of us even name inanimate objects like cars, houses, etc. Often times when we name things, there is meaning behind it. Maybe for a child, the name has personal significance or for a pet, that name just fits their personality.

Besides just distinguishing ourselves from this or that person, names also give us a sense of identity. I know for me, I view my name as both a curse and blessing. It's a common Asian name, and according to facebook, there are over 500 people also with this name. However, I think some of them are more a play on words than the actual name itself.

According to baby name specialist, Maryanna Korwitts, " Of all the name components, the FIRST NAME is used independently with greatest regularity. Consequently, the first name has the most significant influence on a person's life and personality. Almost from the moment of birth, the first name vibration begins impacting perceptions, traits and talents. With time, the underlying frequency or vibration of the first name plays a major role in establishing an individual's relationship patterns and communication style."

It makes me wonder about different people who I know with the same name and whether there are similarities in their personalities. I don't know if this holds true, and I'm too lazy to really think about it. Still, it's an interesting concept. This concept also makes me wonder how my personality might have been affected if I had an entirely different name.

Then I wonder about the names not only that we are given at birth but the nicknames and names we and others call us. Are they positive or negative? Do they affect us? Is it simply just a name? I think they can be any of these things depending on how we look at them. I think descriptors can also be looked at as informal names as well. I'm sure there have been times when we've (or some might say their eating disorder) called ourselves fat, maybe weak, pathetic, lazy, "a pig," etc. In the end, I think calling ourselves this just perpetuates the cycle of abuse. And the goal or at least I hope is that each of us can recover and give ourselves compassion. It's not always an easy thing to do, but maybe it starts out with a simple name we give ourselves. Perhaps, this is what helped with the Thai weight lifter win the gold medal. Maybe whatever her name was before was something meaningless and the new name somehow made her feel better, more confident, stronger.

Now, I don't think we should all go changing our first names, but I do think the names and descriptors we give ourselves can play an important role in how we view ourselves. It may sound incredibly cheesy, but maybe it's worth a try?

"Let's just be friends"

In my break from reading the Olympic news, I received an e-mail from DA. for those that remember, DA was the guy I met online who was supposed to meet me a few weeks ago. I posted about my excitement of meeting him and my disappointment when he cancelled.

After not hearing from him for a week, I shot him an e-mail, just asking what happened and if everything was okay now. A day later, he sent me a message back, sort of explaining why he didn't come. To be hones,t it sounded like cold feet. In the middle of the e-mail, he said those dreaded words, "let's just be friends."
I swear I don't know who invented it, but it is the most lame, dumbest thing for a guy to say to a girl. (or vice versa too) I think it's the worst break up line ever, though I wouldn't necessarily say DA was breaking up with me (how could he, he hasn't even met me!) He just said how he felt that the distance was too difficult for him to deal with a serious relationship. This is, despite the fact we talked about distance and he said it wasn't a problem. Heck, he said he even had a long distance relationship with a girl who lived in Germany!

One of the other things that irked me about this was that three days later, he wound up visiting his friend in NC. The original plan had been for him to run his race, drive to meet me, and then go to NC. I mean am I chop liver or something?

I'm not really sure whether to be mad or disappointed in him or myself in the fact I got my hopes up for nothing. I'm feeling a bit stupid honestly for not really reading into this well and just falling for it all. I suppose friendship isn't a bad thing and of course should be a part of any serious relationship anyway. It's just that when you're looking for something else, "just friendship" feels like you're settling for less. :sigh:

Elite coaching and the concept of happiness

Sorry for the slew of gymnastics articles, I've just found a lot of different points that can be made pertaining to everything from body image to eating disorders to doping to coaching. And this last point is one I want to touch on, especially as the women's gymnastics team final airs tonight.

There have been a lot of articles about Shawn Johnson, a favorite, to win the all around title at these Games. Reading various articles, what I've found most interesting is her "unconventional" if you want to call it that coaching and her balance of life. Unlike many gymnasts, Johnson only practices 26 hours/week. She attends public school, went to her prom, hangs out with her friends, basically just living a "normal" teenage life. It's really quite refreshing to read something like this, especially in this sport that does have it's darker side. You can read the most recent account with Jennifer Sey in Chalked up.

The other aspect I've found a "novel" concept (and I'm being facetious here) is that her gym environment is actually happy. Imagine that in the world of elite gymnastics. Often times, the audience and tv viewers only get a glimpse of the coaches. Most times the coaches are shown happy, giving a lot of praise to their gymnasts. Bela Karolyi who was known as the top elite gymnastics coach in the US since Mary Lou (Comaneci before that, but he was still in Romania at that time), was often shown giving his gymnasts "Bear" hugs. Every Tv viewer probably thought he was gruff maybe but also had such a warm side with those hugs, praise, and jumping up and down joyously when his girls did well. Honestly, I think it was all for show and he was far from it behind closed doors. That's only my speculation from accounts I've read and people I've talked to.

However, with Johnson's coach, Liang Chow, and his wife, I just don't get that impression. Sure, he is smiling on camera and such, but there is just a nice sense of true warmth about him. He's not about calling out names or telling a gymnast how awful she is. For him, it's more about happiness. He says here, "The kids in the gym, they have to be enjoying themselves and so do the coaches. If you're enjoying yourself by creating this loving environment, everybody can do more - everybody can be happier."

The other thing Chow also told Johnson before the Olympic trials was "perform like a champion, don't be afraid to make mistakes." In a sport that's about perfection, that can be hard not to worry about. Johnson said in the article,

"I remember him telling me that, It is almost just a relief. You're just trying to please the person who has taught you eveyrthing; you want to show them that you can be just as perfect as they've trained you to be. You're afraid to make mistakes. You're afraid to let them down -- even though you wouldn't. For him to have told me that, that as long as I went out there and did my best and he knew I had done my best, no matter what happened, he would have been happy -- it made me have a lot more confidence in myself because I knew if I went out there and made mistakes it wouldn't be the end of the world."

I think in any athlete in any sport, it's an important message. Mistakes are really the only way we learn and grow albeit sports or in life in general. The fact that her coach doesn't get upset when she makes a mistake and illuminates a positive attitude, has been so helpful to her success. My belief is that it's all about balance. Working hard is a deifnte part of the recipe for any goal, but so is having the assurance that everything will be okay no matter whether you win or lose.

I'll be rooting for her as well as the rest of the team tonight.

Another way of cheating?

Doping is a big issue in sports worldwide. With the Games in session, it really comes to the limelight. There have already been a string of athletes charged with doping, including US swimmer Jessica Hardy who bowed out of the Olympics after testing positive for clenbuterol, a Spanish cyclist who tested positive for EPO, and seven Russian track and field athletes, some of whom were to compete in the Games, who illicitly substitued their urine for someone else's. There have also been eyebrows raised with several of the Chinese swimmers winning their heats in the 4x100 reloay, coming out of nowhere with exceptionally fast times.

Then, there is gymnastics. Though there was the Romanian gymnast, Andrea Raducan, who was stripped of her gold meal after testing positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned substance, which her coach had given her for a cold at the 2000 Olympics, normally, doping charges aren't in the conventional way in this sport. Instead, it's to do with falsifying ages. This is not new for the sport. In 1997, the age of eligibility to participate in the Olympics was raised to 16. Many felt it was for the safety of the girls. However, since then, some feel like it's only gotten worse, not better.

Currently, there is a huge debate about the Chinese women's gymnastics team with 3 out of the 6 appearing younger than 16 years of age. Supposedly, the team passports have been checked and all is okay. Hmmm. Just like eating disorders, this issue is a bit taboo, and especially in a host nation's country.

One outspoken person has been Bela Karolyi who feels like it is a slap in the face. He says it is obvious these girls are not the ages they say, especially when compared to the US gymnasts. These Chinese gymnasts are at least 3 inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter. That's a whole heck of a lot, though it is hard to say for sure whether it is age or malnourishment, unfortunately. And with China's record (as well as other totalitarian nations--Romania has confessed to falsifying ages of Gina Gogean and Alexandrea Marinescu in 2002), it really can't be put past them. Apparently, Yang Yun, one of the Chinese gymnasts who won in the Sydney Games was only 14 at the time.

So, the question is, is this another form of cheating? And if China has done this, what is the answer to alleviating the problem?

According to Bela and Martha Karolyi, age restrictions should be lifted. That way, as Martha Karolyi says, "it would even the playing field." However, Bela Karolyi points out that there would still be the issue of using young gymnasts as "pawns" to win.

However, in this New York Times article, the Italian women's gymnastics coach apparently has the answer, "create weight classes." In this same article, he also says how it could be suspected that the US gymnasts were doping since they were so much more muscular than his gymnasts.

Great, that's just the answer. We need more of them to think about body image issues as it is or to have coaches doping their girls in order to stay at a certain weight. I don't know the answer to this issue, but I can tell you right now, having weight classes will only cause more harm than good. We already have boxers, wrestlers, and horse jockeys (all sports where there are weight classes) self-harm themselves in order to make their weight classes, I don't think gymnastics needs to be included.

Rational thinking versus emotional thinking

We all have people who can get under our skin or know how to push the right buttons to set us off. It can get to our emotions, causing us upset, maybe even triggering episodes of self-harm behaviors. For me, one of them is my father. I've talked about it before, but here's just another example of it.

On Saturday, I had returned his phone call from earlier in the day. We talked about the Olympics and other general things going on in our lives. I got on the topic of talking about this one dog at the kennel. I was telling him how I felt really sad for her. This dog is old--probably 12-13 years old, has several medical issues, has a huge tumor which is benign on her lower abdomen that affects her gait, smells (probably infection and the "sick" dog odor), and has horrible mats since her owners do not brush her. I know her quality of life cannot be great since she is merely existing. However, the owners continue to let her live this way.

For many of us, we don't like to see animals suffer and will try to prevent that. I no doubt did the best I could while she was at the kennel to make sure she was comfortable (cut out many of her mats) and took good care of her. It's always hard when there is a case like this, because I really do worry about the dog dying on my watch. The owners were aware that this could possibly happen and we have them sign something ahead of time for liability purposes. It's only been very few times it has ever happened, but when it did, these dogs were elderly and in poor health.

I told my dad about all this, and how I wish I could say something to the owners, but that in my position, it was really not right. I'm not a good friend of the owners nor did they ask me for my opinion, I'm just a caretaker for their dogs. He couldn't understand this. He said how someone needed to stand up for the dog since she can't talk herself. He then accused me of saying it was all about money, and that I really didn't care. He was disappointed that I was not going to say anything to the owners other than how she did at the kennel. He suggested I talk to the owners about at least brushing this dog. I told him that this isn't a new issue, they've been clients for over 6 years now, and they just never brush their dogs. Then, he said how they should be banned from the kennel. Umm hello, if we banned every client who did not brush their dog, well, that would be more than half our clients, seriously. It's not something people think about unless they have a dog that needs to be groomed, their dog is massively "blowing coat," shedding, or their is something wrong with their fur or skin.

The thing is that the owners know she is ill. I know their vet has told her she is on her last legs. I'm sure they have a hard time letting go, only thinking with their emotions and probably hope that she will just pass away in her sleep. These issues are hard for everyone, and everyone is affected.

At the end of the conversation, my dad and I "agreed to disagree." He changed the subject to something else, but the tension remained, and we wound up quickly ending the phone call. Right after, I talked to one of my friends. She's met my dad and knows how he is. Something she said however was really important. She said, "do you see how your dad is only acting by his emotions?" I knew this logically, but just hadn't quite put it together since I was still wrapped up in my own emotions.

This may be just a simple reminder, but it's really important for me. When I was in the throes of the eating disorder, this type of conversation would have thrown me into a full fledged b/p episode, leaving myself probably even more upset than when it had happened. Then, I'd just "punish" myself for even disagreeing and having the argument with him, especially since I avoid confrontation at all costs. I essentially allowed these disagreements and fights to put me over the edge. I allowed them to affect me instead of looking at things rationally.

There's no doubt that there are times and places to think both rationally and emotionally. Some of us have a tendency to only think either rationally or emotionally, and we have to learn to be able to balance the two types of thoughts. For me, whenever I'm making tough decisions, my emotions get in the way. I know the elements of the decision which are logical in nature but often have a hard time choosing that over what my emotions are. My good friend reminds me that sometimes I need to eliminate the emotions and just look at the bare minimum. It's not an easy feat, but the more I am able to let myself do this, the better equipped I am at handling the situation.

Although this disagreement is tough (I hate disappointing people), I'm letting it go. I spoke to my mom briefly about it today, and apparently my dad had already discussed the conversation with her, just going on and on about it. Fine, he can do that, but I know I acted professionally and appropriately and did not let my emotions cloud my rationality.

Confidence is hard for me, but in this particular case, I'm confident I made the right decision.

Elite athletes and healthy eating

Eating disorders and disordered eating have recently been discussed in athletics. I've posted about it on here a number of times.. Although an eltie athlete's needs are different nutritionally than the average person, I think it's also important to showcase those who have "normal, healthy" eating habits.

Here are some brief interviews with Mary Lou Retton, Olympic gymnast in 1984, Apolo Anton Ohno, Olympic speedskater in 2002 and 2006, and Dara Torres, Olympic swimmer who now has won 10 Olympic medals.

Mary Lou's interview is here.

Apolo Anton Ohno is here.

Dara Torres is here.

Two other elite athlets in the sport of running also talk about healthy eating. With Kara Goucher who will be running the 5,000m and 10,000m in this Olympics, in this interview she discusses how she overcame disordered eating and now eats healthy, making sure she gets enough calories for her perfomances.

Jennifer Rhines never had an eating disorder but knew many of her fellow teammates that did. Her emphasis in this interview is that if an athlete wants to make it to the elite level, an athlete has to fuel his/her body appropriately. Otherwise, he/she won't last.

What I love about these athletes is that they do not count calories. Each eat healthily for their body, realizing food is fuel for their body, and if they want to do well, they must eat enough. The other aspect of these athletes is that they are not depriving themselves of "bad" food. They eat dessert, doritoes, m&ms, etc. It's all a balance.

I think it's just a good take away message. Sometimes it's easy to look at all the negatives, but it's important to remember the positives too and what we can learn from them.