The Olympics and Motivation: How To Find Your Own Greatness

Every two years the peoples of the world unite to celebrate the Summer Olympic Games. The Olympiad occurs near the time of the American Festival known as Elvis Week, commemorating the spirit and legacy of a poor boy that made it big in the USA.

Like Elvis Presley in America, the youth of the nations of the Earth have a chance to be seen and to accomplish what seems impossible in their athletic endeavors. Many poor young people - skater Oksana Baiyul for instance - gained recognition and a career through the Olympic Games.

Entering the Olympics is a way of displaying the human spirit in its aspects of courage and determination. No matter what anyone says to or about them to discourage them, these athletes are awesome.

Remember Eddie Smith from the UK several Olympiads ago, who had no snow in his part of the Uk and pracrticed downhill skiing on grass. He came in dead last in his competition on snow and ice, but to a standing ovation from specators and ahtletes alike. He is a hero.

The young man from my home state of Ohio, presented in a video below, is also a hero. Inspired by the Summer Olympics 2012, he and his mom both began exercising. People degraded him and sent him horrible comments, but he continued training.

Besides the Olympics, we have Olympiads for nearly everyone - Special Olympics, Senior Olympics, and Paralympics for our Wounded Warriors and injured individuals. In 2012, the Paralympic Games became as popular as the Olympics for the first time.

No matter who you are, you can accomplish something great. You may know someone else that has a seed of greatness waiting for an encouraging word. Be that Word.

Working up the nerve to write and publish an article on the Internet for millions of eyes to critique is similar to a 15-year-old's first Olympic event - thrills, questions, taunts, and wonder.

For some, it's harder to write; for some it's harder to run. I watched Oscar Pistorius running the 4 x 400m relay on his carbon fibre Cheetah Legs in 2012 and to me, in a long camera shot, it looked like he had wheels. We all can do something.

You may want to join the H.O.W. group and write about ways to change the world right where we are.

Below, this is Nathan Sorrell of London OH, about 30 miles west of me, who made a Nike ad for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

Nathan Sorrell in the video displayed above and Nike began receiving hate mail from this ad.

Some of it said the ad was exploitative; other messages criticized Nathan for even trying to exercise; but Nathan said he had so much fun doing it that he ignored the difficulty of running through take after take of the filming.

At one point, he said, he had run so much that he vomited and ended up in a ditch, but he was not going to quit. Here's a quote about the haters:

“That just motivates me more because I want to get on my feet and do extra time for those people who have enough time to be able to sit there and write mean comments on the Internet, when they could be doing something like I am.”

Right you are, Nathan.

After filming had ended, Nathan and his mom both began exercising more regularly and adopting additional elements of a healthy lifestyle. He would like to make another film like this one after he has reached his major fitness goals.

It's difficult to accept that 2012's Elvis Festival Week commemorated the 35th anniversary of The King's death on August 16. I was much younger than Elvis Presley when he died, but was shaken up by the news,even though I had not listened to his music very much.

Thousands of people traveled to Graceland in 2012, lining up outside the night before the larget tribute celebration of the week. Priscilla and Lisa Marie were both their and plenty of tear were shed.

Elvis Presley was a man from a poor town that made a difference in American culture, a man remembered 35 years after his passing as if he were still on stage performing. He may be even more popular now.

Only recently did I learn that Elvis was my relative - a distant cousin. When a new friend I met a decade ago revealed that he was an Elvis Tribute Artist who entertained in hospitals, I began to listen to my cousin's music. Sadly, my friend died on August 17, 2011, during Elvis Week.

Now I have two Elvises to remember.