Like most people, I have enjoyed watching the Olympics this past week. The winter games mostly consist of sports and athletes I know nothing about, but tonight was different. Tonight I watched the skeleton competition and it brought back a lot of memories. Here is a little known fact about me, 10 years ago, when I was a Sophomore in high school, I spent the winter training for the 2 man bobsled and skeleton. It was the year 2000 and the Salt Lake City Olympics were just around the corner. They were trying to increase Utah's field of women bobsled and skeleton athletes. Most of these athletes have a background in track and field because of the importance of explosive sprint speed to start the race, so the coaches went around to local High Schools inviting some of the top track athletes to come train for the year completely free. When I was approached and invited to do this I thought, sure, why not. So every Wednesday for the entire winter my mom drove me up to Park City no matter what the weather conditions were and waited in the freezing cold while I had a 4-5 hour practice (I wasn't 16 yet so I couldn't drive myself). The things I remember most about my time at the Utah Olympic Park are how cold my feet would get no matter how many hand warmers I had stuffed in my socks, how many bruises I got on my shoulders from banging into the walls, how crazy it felt to be going so fast and only being able to see about a foot in front of me, how bad I was at being the bobsled driver (they only let me drive once, and after I almost flipped the sled they decided I was much more fit to be a pusher), and how at the time I never realized what a once-in-a-life-time experience I was having. I was never particularly good at either sport, but I sure had fun trying them. My point in posting this is that I never want to forget all the amazing experiences I had growing up and how every one of them was the result of sacrifices my parents made for me. I hope I can provide my kids with as many opportunities and experiences as I had growing up. Thanks Mom and Dad.
