Do you know anyone who has been to the Olympics?

[Anonymous]

I knew a couple of girls from my college rowing team who went to the olympics. They went to an OTC after college and lived there for several years.
Frankly, at the time, it seemed to me like a terrible way to spend your twenties. That’s the time most people get their education and meet their spouse. And they spent the entire time rowing.

[Anonymous]

My good friend has 2 gold medals in soccer and a slightly less good friend has 1 gold medal in the 110 hurdles.

[Anonymous]

My former supervisor was an Olympic rower. I wasn’t fond of her. I found her very self-absorbed and intolerant. She was used to being the most successful person in the room and didn’t work well with others.

[Anonymous]

I know an Olympic skier who skied for 2 different countries. No medals. He got an MBA (that's where I met him) and works in finance.

[Anonymous]

Yes, swimmer who was very generous with kids at our neighborhood pool.

And I don’t want to spin this off in a political direction, but if you read about the guy who took part in the Capitol insurrection who’d been on the Olympic relay team with Michael Phelps, it’s very sad. His life started in a downward spiral because he couldn’t adjust to normal life after elite athletics.

[Anonymous]

A former colleague was an Olympic rower. He ended up leaving the corporate life and moving to the west coast, where he coaches rowing.

A former classmate was an Olympic gymnast. She now coaches gymnastics (incidentally, also on the west coast).

[Anonymous]

Ha, yes, my husband, for ping pong. He did not get a medal, and it is not a sexy "sport," but still kind of cool, right?

[Anonymous]

Two rowers, both won gold medals in more than one Olympics. One was in the foreign service for a while and now is a SAHM, one of her children has pretty severe special needs. The other, a man, is a lawyer in a small town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What sport? Did they do well? What was their life like?

Pairs figure skating. It didn't go well. I have no idea what his life is like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha, yes, my husband, for ping pong. He did not get a medal, and it is not a sexy "sport," but still kind of cool, right?

Can he start his own ask me anything thread? I have so many questions... Is he from the US? How did he realize he was great at ping pong and could compete internationally? Does he still play? Did he need expensive coaching? Where did he even find a coach?

[Anonymous]

Yes, Tom Dolan, gold baby.

[Anonymous]

When my mom was in high school she was set up on a date with a boy from out of town. The boy from out of town stood her up on the date.

Even though he was from a different part of the country, they coincidentally ended up at the same college, so two or three years after he'd stood her up, she was able to ask him directly, "What the hell, dude?" (I'm paraphrasing here: this happened in the late 1950s/early 1960s.)

He laughed it off as no big deal, but it had been a pretty deal for my mom, especially since she wasn't very popular and he was considered something of a catch in terms of being a scholar and an athlete.

Of course she got over it, but it's not the kind of thing you forget, so in 1972 when she saw the news reports about the murdered Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics she immediately recognized one of them as the boy who had been mean to her 10+ years earlier.

He had moved to Israel after finishing law school in the US and was a weight-lifter on the Israeli team when Black September took them hostage and murdered them.

Not exactly an uplifting story, but totally true.

[Anonymous]

I’m a decent runner. Years back I was in a training group with a lady who ran the 800m for the UK at two Olympics. She should have won a medal at the second but ran a dumb race, and got destroyed for it in the sports media and by the UK selectors, and was never selected to run for the UK again.

I feel like that had a negative impact on her life.

[Anonymous]

Hockey player who was on the US team and the NHL
Equestrian team - these ppl have looooong careers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my mom was in high school she was set up on a date with a boy from out of town. The boy from out of town stood her up on the date.

Even though he was from a different part of the country, they coincidentally ended up at the same college, so two or three years after he'd stood her up, she was able to ask him directly, "What the hell, dude?" (I'm paraphrasing here: this happened in the late 1950s/early 1960s.)

He laughed it off as no big deal, but it had been a pretty deal for my mom, especially since she wasn't very popular and he was considered something of a catch in terms of being a scholar and an athlete.

Of course she got over it, but it's not the kind of thing you forget, so in 1972 when she saw the news reports about the murdered Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics she immediately recognized one of them as the boy who had been mean to her 10+ years earlier.

He had moved to Israel after finishing law school in the US and was a weight-lifter on the Israeli team when Black September took them hostage and murdered them.

Not exactly an uplifting story, but totally true.

Berger?