Shaun White, Inspiring a Nation
For the past several weeks, my wife and I have been practically glued to the TV from 7:00 – 11:00 every night. It doesn’t seem to matter what event they are showing, we seemed to find ourselves hooked. But my personal favorite event of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics thus far has been the Men’s Snowboarding Half-Pipe.
Going into his second run in the half-pipe medal competitions Shaun White had already clinched the gold. All he had to do was board right down the center of the pipe and cross the line. He could have taken it easy and just goofed around. Instead he gave the Canadian audience and the rest of the viewers watching from around the world one of the best athletic performances we’ve ever seen. To everyone’s amazement, he went on to give to give us the Double McTwist 1260, which was a huge and unnecessary risk. This trick was created by White himself and had never been successfully completed in competition by anyone else. In fact White himself had taken a brutal crash at the last Winter X Games while attempting to complete this trick. But with gold secured and nothing more to win and everything to lose, White held nothing back and it was inspiring.
After the initial celebration and awe of what I had just witnessed began to wear off, I found myself wondering if I would have gone for it, had I been in his shoes. I’m not sure that I would have. But I love that Shaun saw value in completing that run, even if it wasn’t for a medal. Personally, I believe that God takes joy in seeing us use our talents. Even if there is “nothing to gain” at the moment. I often find that I have a hard time engaging and enjoying things that don’t bring me obvious and immediate gain. For instance, with this blog, will I be able to continue to write this blog, even if I never get any comments? Or what if nobody ever reads it? Will I still find value in taking the time to write out these thoughts?
What do you think? Was White’s final run courageous or foolish? And would you answer the same way if he had busted his face and suffered a career ending injury?
February 26th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
here’s a link that shows his performance:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=d924411a-bea6-4fd8-b485-f58dc5238dfe.html#mens+halfpipe+white+wins+gold
paste it in your browser and let er rip.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
It was an awesome moment! Loved seeing him so victorious! I think that is what victories (even small ones like I have in my life sometimes) do for us! They make us give it all we’ve got next time!!!! Chris, please continue your blog. I think it’s going to be great to read. You inspire me. and by the way, Happy Anniversary! Your wife is very lucky!
February 27th, 2010 at 9:57 am
I think after training for over four years in his own half-pipe that was built to be exactly identical to the olympic halp-pipe, he did what he should have done. He delivered when he was suppose to. I think it would have been almost ‘out of his character’ for him to take an easy victory lap through it. I just wish that people would have stepped up their game in order to give White some competition as well as a push. It did seem like he was genuinely grateful, surprised, and humbled after hearing the news before his final run.
March 4th, 2010 at 8:10 am
White made the right move. If you remember at the top of the half-pipe right before his last run he looked at his coaches and said, “Should I go right down the middle?” Of course to this the answer was no. What if he would have busted it? I would still have applauded…. Why? Because risky people are the ones that make the most impact and difference. If we all stay at the status-quo we will never go anywhere. Kind of sounds like some of our churches. No risk = less effective… Great post Nathan this Shaun White run will be the thing I remember from this winter Olympics and if he wouldn’t have done it I would have had to remember Canada beating the US in hockey… stink..