What an innings, Jesse Ryder!
What an innings, Jesse Ryder! To hit a 51 ball century after a 22 month hiatus and a near-death coma is absolutely outstanding! This is the kind of come back story that the first day of New Year deserves.
Olympic Book: Story of a Rowing Champion Who Saved a Family of Ducks
This story is part of the book I’m authoring titled, ‘Rings to Cubicles: Inspiring Lessons of Grit, Perseverence and Sportsmanship from Olympic Athletes for Corporate Professionals‘. Read more about the book here http://www.Kiruba.com/olympics
Its a compilation of inspiring real life stories from Olympic Champions. Here is one very fascinating story. Read on.
Winning an Olympic Gold Medal is considered the ultimate in sports. Hundreds of elite athletes have done that across many Olympic events. We don’t remember them all. There are very few that stays in our memory.
Bobby Pearce’s Rowing victory at 1928 Amsterdam Olympics is one such.
But first, about the rower. Bobby hails from a family of accomplished rowers. Both his father and grandfather participated in the World Rowing Championships. His grandfather won it in 1885. Not surprisingly, Bobby took to rowing early in his life. By 14, he had already won his first open event and a few years later was crowned the National Single Sculls Rowing Champion. It was no surprise that Bobby was selected to represent Australia in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
The Amsterdam 1928 rowing regatta was held on the Sloten Canal, and in the single sculls there were fifteen competitors from fifteen different countries.
Bobby easily beat his competitors in the initial rounds. His biggest challenge was to come during the quarter-finals Not from his rowing competitor but from a family of ducks !!
In the quarter-finals race, Bobby was easily leading Victor Saurin of France. While he was well ahead of the Frenchman, he heard the spectators on the river banks loudly shout out to him and gesturing wildly. He looked over his shoulders to find a duck and her ducklings right in the path of his boat. He stopped rowing, slowed down his boat to a halt and precariously leaned forward to rest on his oars. By the time the duck family had crossed to safety, his competitor had already overtaken him with a lead of five boat-lengths.
Bobby restarted his rowing and so good was his strength that he not only overtook his French rival but went on to beat him by over 30 seconds. Infact, Bobby’s time was the fastest among the eight scullers, even including the stoppage time for the ducks!!
Bobby then famously went on to win the 1928 sculling gold with a record time that stood for nearly half a century. He later become the first Australian to defend an Olympic title at the 1932 Los Angeles Games.
Even though Bobby is considered one of the greatest rowers in the word (Two Olympic Gold Medals, Three World Sculling Championship Titles), it is his humane consideration for the family of Ducks that won people’s hearts and made him popular.
Looking for Inspiring Olympics Success Stories
With Olympics a little over a month ago, I’ve already been bitten by the Games bug. I’m compiling a list of very inspiring stories from the Olympic Games (all forms: Summer Games, Winter Games, Paralympics and Youth Games). This is for a newly launched book project. The idea is to pick up these inspiring lessons and apply them to our working and real life.
To see an example of the success stories, please take a look at this page to get an idea. These can be stories which illustrate the following…
Planning : How a sports person has meticulously planned his or her preparation. A well planned training regiment. An example for us to learn to apply while dealing with big projects at work.
Peaking: A story to show that peaking at the right time is important. While preparation is important, it equally important not to burn out and to conserve the best for the main event.
Perseverance: Stories of how athletes have never given up in-spite of hurdles.
Overcoming Failure: Inspiring stories of how sports persons have overcome failures and in fact used them as a great motivational force to succeed.
Sportsmanship: Examples of ethics and respect for fellow athletes. Lessons we must learn and apply in our corporate life.
Leadership: How a man or woman has been a true leader, catalyzing an entire team to achieve success. In corporate life, it will be the CEO and powerful lessons to learn from sports leaders.
Coaching: The importance of experience and how a coach has played an important role in shepherding a team to Gold. In corporate life, this role is played by mentors.
Turning a Dumpyard into a Lovely Garden
Photo by b.w.futures
A team of dedicated retired people have turned a few empty plots of land which was misused by the city corporation as a graveyard for broken vehicles, into lovely looking garden. What used to be an eyesore is now a magnet for health conscious people. As part of the garden, they have two Badminton courts, one cemented and the other with grass.
NOTE: These badminton courts are only meant for the residents of the locality. I had made a note earlier about the court’s availability for outsiders but the rules have since changed. If you have come here eagerly looking for a badminton court, sorry to have disappointed you.
Chennai Open: So Near, Yet So Far!
For the last 9 years, I have never missed attending at least one match at the Chennai Open. It’s the biggest ATP tournament in India and for guys like me, its probably the only opportunity to watch the World’s best in flesh. Think Rafael Nadal and Carlos Moya. It’s been an absolute must on my annual calendar.
Sadly, this year I can’t watch a single match. Why? Because of a board outside the Nungambakkam stadium that reads, “All tickets for all matches sold out”. Heck, even the advertisement in The Hindu today carried those dreaded words.
Yet, you watch the matches on TV, and at least 50% of the seats are empty. I saw many fans lining up outside the stadium turn back disappointed. Let’s forget the fans for a moment. The half-empty stands look ugly on TV. That’s hardly reflective of the kind of interest that Chennaites have for the game. It in fact reflects bad on the tournament organizers. Wouldn’t the players like to play to a packed audience?
Apparently, most seats have been given away to sponsors, the Tamilnadu Tennis Association and definitely to a whole host of politicians…who either don’t have an active interest in the game or too busy to attend the events.
This year has been the worst in the last 9 years I’ve known. In the previous years, you could walk to the ticket counter and atleast find a few tickets available (except for the finals or the big matches). But this year, its been a total wipe out for folks who just want to watch the match that day.
I regret not buying the season ticket on the day it launched. It was going for only Rs.1500 for all days. A steal, actually. I’m kicking myself now.
It feels a little odd to watch the match on TV, when the real action is actually taking place less than 5 kms away.