For Wilshire Baptist Church
On the Monday morning after the closing ceremonies for the 2024 Olympics, we visited the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum. The timing was a coincidence in our planning for a week of vacation in Colorado, and it turned out to be a memorable and inspiring experience.
It was interesting to see both these facilities, located less than three miles apart in the heart of Colorado Springs, because the work at the training center obviously leads to the success highlighted at the museum.
At the training center we saw work beginning or already under way for the next generation of competitors and potential champions. As the medal winners from the 2024 games were making their way home from Paris, we saw athletes working with weights and trainers; we saw one in the rehab room stretching out some sort of injury; we saw marksmen in the indoor range perfecting their aim with air and pellet rifles; we saw high school wrestlers grappling and throwing each other to the mats with coaches circling and instructing.
We saw the gym where future gymnastic phenoms perfect their routines, and the swimming pool where the fastest in the water work on becoming even faster. We also heard stories of life at the training center: like how gymnast Simone Biles, who has her own gym near Houston, visited and worked out for a few days at a time, while speed skater Apolo Ohno lived at the training campus for six years.
Perhaps the most inspiring element of our visit was our tour guide. LeAnn first saw him get off a city bus while we were standing with others outside the locked doors. He rolled up to the door in an electric wheel chair, greeted everyone, and said the museum would open soon. It wasn’t until we got inside that we discovered he was our guide. Full of information, humor, candor and goodwill, he led us through several facilities across the campus. He was neither an Olympian nor a Paralympian, but he definitely had the Olympic spirit and was all about sharing it.
Later at the museum, we saw the fruits of all the training and hard work with displays of memorabilia, athletic gear and uniforms dating back to the beginning of the Modern Olympics in 1896. Highlights included a near-complete collection of medals from each of the modern games, and a complete collection of torches from every Olympic game since the Olympic Flame was introduced in 1928. There was a vacant spot reserved for a torch from Paris.
I thought about those athletes often over the next few days as we hiked in various locations in the mountains. We did pretty good for our age on trails that were strenuous and at elevations thousands of feet higher than we’re accustomed to at home. But there’s no comparison to what the Olympians and Paralympians must do to prepare their bodies and minds for their moments on the world stage. We didn’t need to train for the hikes; we just needed to be smart about it, pace ourselves and stop for rest and water when we needed it.
Somewhere on our trip I saw a woman wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Trained.” I looked that up online and found it’s a fashion trend tied to wrestling. A popular version of the shirt states below the main message, “God, Family, Wrestling. What else is there?”
If the shirt is implying that Jesus trained for and “wrestled” with the details of his mission and ministry, the “brood of vipers” he encountered, the doubts and misunderstandings of his disciples, etc., I can go with that. I also think you could exchange the word “wrestling” with whatever field you are working in or whatever your goal is, and you’d have a pretty good prioritization for your life: “God, Family, _______.” In that regard, the message is pretty clear: We need to work and train for that prioritization and balance, just as Jesus did.
By the way, the 2024 Paralympic Games are August 28 through September 8 in Paris. The games won’t get the media attention and thus our attention at the same level as the Olympics, but they should. The competing athletes certainly have given it their full attention. They’ve been training in Colorado Springs and in cities and villages around the globe.