Don’t take off the medal kid.

Kiwi swimmer Laura Quilter posted some terrific advice for all athletes:

cropped-laura-quilter-04-06-2014-013-copyI sort of tripped over a life-learning last year.

The strangest thing happened when I arrived back in New Zealand after racing at the World University Games in Korea, Everyone congratulated me.

See, at the Games I made my first ever individual international final in the 50m butterfly. The result of that one event was what people back home had heard about, courtesy of a few news articles.

No-one had any idea that I pulled out of the 200 freestyle because I was swimming so poorly.

No-one had any idea that my 100m freestyle was the slowest time I had produced in over 3 years. …

I was blindsided by positivity that first week at home. Congratulations flooded in. It was during that week that I realised how true all those sayings are. …

Don’t take off the medal kid.

Click through to read the whole story. 🙂

dance – Give Me One Reason

Choreography by Chris Martin & Larkin Poynton. Tracy Chapman – Give Me One Reason.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (2014)

Corteo – Tournik bar training

Cirque du Soleil Corteo’s final performance was in Quito, Ecuador December 13, 2015.

Here’s some training video of one of the outrageous acts. Much more difficult than they make it look.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Chinese Nationals Rings Final

China will once again win Rings as a team in Rio. It’s amazing how strong these guys are.

Click PLAY or watch the 2016 Finals on YouTube.

The New Yorker – Simone Biles

It’s the Olympic year. All sorts of people suddenly get interested in Gymnastics.

Reeves Wiedeman published a long, rambling but very well researched article in the New Yorker.

… “She’s great eighty-five per cent of the time,” Boorman told me. “She is also fifteen per cent teen-age girl.” …

A FULL REVOLUTION

In the run-up to the Olympics, Simone Biles is transforming gymnastics.

Simone

dancing’ Kaito Imabayashi

His first-ever World Challenge Cup: gold on Pommel Horse, silver on High Bar and bronze on Still Rings.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via papaliukin)