Sunday, February 23, 2014

Pursuit of Perfection

In the wake of all the scandals and controversies in modern sport, it's interesting to read this story about 1960 Olympic 1500 meter champion Herb Elliott, who talks about how he approached his sport and life. Story is HERE.

Another Australian athlete worth getting to know  is Ron Clarke, who is interviewed HERE. Clarke was arguably the best distance runner of his time, but never won an Olympic gold medal, until Emil Zatopek gave him one of his.  In an earlier interview Clarke was asked about why he shared information with his opponents, tried to help them be their best because, he said, if you want to race someone, you want to race them at their best.  To achieve your best you had to race against the best at their best.

I've had the good fortune to meet both of these men, each true champions.

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