What does it take to become an Olympic champion? It clearly takes a lot of training. It also requires tremendous determination and a mindset that not many people possess. As such, there are plenty of life lessons that we can learn from Olympic athletes.
So, whatβs the best way to become the Olympic champion of your life? Well, if youβre not sure where to start, then youβve come to the right place.Β #WellnessWednesdays is a weekly Instagram interview at 19h00 SAST hosted by the founder of the World of Longevity, GisΓ¨le Wertheim AymΓ©s. It will help you become the champion of your life.
Danielle Brittain: Olympic Life Lessons
Dr. Danielle Brittain is the author of Warriors, and she is also the team doctor for the South African rowing team, yet her incredible journey started much earlier than that.
Her sons, Lawrence and Matthew, were the first brothers to win Olympic gold in South Africa during the Rio Olympics. This special feat came after a rough period in Lawrenceβs life. This amazing reality inspired her to write a book based on Lawrenceβs journey.
However, after she realized that Matthewβs journey was just as incredible, as winning a gold medal is no small feat, she made the decision to base the book on the two brothers.
That said, Dr. Brittain knew she still had to provide the backstory, which includes their father, Davidβs, history with rowing and attempting to enter the 1996 Summer Olympics. As such, it wasnβt long before the idea for the story grew from there.
The Warriorβs Journey
Danielle Brittain
At the age of 15, Brittain was diagnosed with Hodgkinβs lymphoma, the same disease that her son Lawrence would be diagnosed with a few decades later. Nonetheless, Brittain underwent treatment and carried on with her school career.
However, the real complications came a few years later when she developed breast cancer, which she admits she had trouble coping with, psychologically and mentally. Moreover, this occurred around the same time that she joined the South African rowing team.
Mother and son’s cancer journey
While Brittain dealt with her own health concerns, she also had to grapple with the fact that her son had been diagnosed with Hodgkinβs lymphoma, sharing that the diagnosis came as quite a shock.
Brittain admits that she had an idea that something was wrong with Lawrence, yet they were shocked to find out that he had stage 4 disease, especially because he was still performing so well.
βHe coped with a lot and performed incredibly wellβ¦We (as a family) are quite tough and we donβt have too many excuses for ourselves. We understand that there are no second chances and that you need to make the best of it now because you donβt know if youβll get another chance laterβ
She adds that this mentality played a pivotal role in Matthew and Lawrenceβs life journeys.
Olympic resilience
If thereβs one attribute that we can adopt from elite athletes, it definitely has to be their resilience. Brittain shares that her upbringing, and the fact that she fell pregnant and got married at an early age, certainly played a role in making her tougher.
Photo by Sam Balye on Unsplash
βWe donβt let ourselves off the hook easily, and we rarely play the victim card, and we expect a lot. That said, itβs not always a good thing to be constantly tough on yourself, but thatβs who we are. I think the boys being able to do what they did takes some guts, courage and some serious disciplineβ
Becoming an elite athlete
What does it take to win a gold medal? Admittedly, weβve all watched an Olympic game and gone, “I could do that”, but could we actually do that?Β
βThe hunger has to be there, and youβveΒ got to really want it – not your parents, or anybody else, but you have to really want it, and you have to be living that dreamβ
Brittain goes on to add thatΒ no dream is realized with about putting in hard workΒ and as such, youβll need to have a huge work ethic.
So what if you want to follow in her son’s footsteps?
Dr. Brittain tells us that if you want to be great at rowing, then you have good at anaerobic sprinting, and it takes years to perform at such a high level, adding that βyouβre not here for a spring, youβre here for a marathon as it takes about 4Β to 12 years to achieve that level.β
An athletic diet
Just because they showcase incredible fitness, it doesnβt mean that athletes have the healthiest diets, and thatβs where Dr. Brittain comes in. Her job entails not only making the athletes healthier but also helping reduce the risk of illness, and the best way to do this, for everyone, is through diet.
βRecovery is important for every athlete and if you want to recover, you have to do the basics which are to eat well and to sleep wellβ. She adds that sleep is your biggest weapon, and itβs important to get at least eight hours of it.
In regards to your diet, Dr. Brittain recommends that you at least eat β80% of the time the best that you can.β
Photograph by Williams & HirakawaβAUGUST
Mental health matters
With the likes of Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka taking a step back from their sporting careers in order to care for their mental health, itβs clear that the sporting world isnβt the easiest place to navigate.
βElite athletes are underΒ enormous amounts of pressure,βΒ says Dr. Brittain, βIt is a highly pressurized career and some of the mental sides of it isΒ regularlyΒ looked over.β
Dr. Brittain shares that communities should be conscious of creating an environment that allows for athletes to speak about their mental health woes.
Conclusion
βWe all love the stories of people winning, but it doesnβt just happen. A lot of things go wrong and a lot of things have to happen for people to able to achieve Olympic successβ¦Parenting, overcoming difficulties and how to work as a team are just a few of the things that youβll learn from the bookβ
WATCH THE INTERVIEW
The video interview with Dr. BrittainΒ contains the entire dialogue of this interview, and you can watch it below.
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