Mount Vernon High School

August 2, 2024 The Harsh Reality of High Achievement For anyone who loves sports, this two-week stretch of Olympic coverage is like an all you can eat buffet of competitive greatness. Earlier this week I had a helping of women's judo and men's water polo with a side of skateboarding and tennis. I can confidently say I care more this week about the performance of people I don’t know from places I’ve never heard of than ever before. But my favorite part of the Olympic coverage has become the feature stories that dig into the backstories of those competing. Those stories often reveal the long, winding, and often challenging road that’s led these elite athletes here, onto the sports world’s biggest stage. We have the privilege of watching these people perform at the highest level, but we usually don’t get to witness the difficult journey that getting to their Olympic moment required them to endure. Each of those stories of struggle help to confirm what the sometimes harsh reality of high achievement looks like - and, if we’re serious about doing something meaningful and significant in our own lives - what it often requires from us. American gymnast Sunisa “Suni” Lee is a great example. Four years ago at the games in Tokyo, she stood on top of the podium and the gymnastics world as the women’s all-around gold medalist. At only 17 years old, she seemed destined to join the long list of American gymnastics superstars. As a casual fan, I recalled her performance from my Olympic binge back in 2020 and was excited to see her returning in Paris. This week, under the bright lights of the big stage, Suni Lee looked strong and smooth and confident. She looked like she hadn’t lost a step. But the reality of her return to Olympic glory reveals she nearly lost a lot more than that. One morning in February of last year, Lee woke up with swollen ankles she attributed to her intense training routine. The next morning, the rest of her body followed suit. In a matter of only a few days, Lee’s health mysteriously deteriorated. She gained more than 40 pounds, was in constant pain, and couldn’t get out of bed. As doctors scrambled to diagnose her condition, Lee struggled. “I was very, very miserable,” she remembered. “I was just rotting in my bed. I couldn’t talk to anybody. I didn’t leave the house.” A battery of medical tests revealed two rare kidney conditions. Medication eventually helped her manage the symptoms, but the physical and mental toll of the experience was significant. “That was probably the hardest couple of months,” she shared recently about the summer of 2023, a time she was supposed to spend preparing for this week's Olympic opportunity. “I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to do it.” Very few of us can relate to Suni Lee’s experience standing on an Olympic podium with a gold medal hanging from our neck, but many of us can relate to the unexpected and unwelcome adversity that complicated her winning pursuit. Her story, like so many others, is further evidence that while it’s easy to focus on the elite performance and the high achievement of those we consider champions, the truth is success in any meaningful and significant area of life will likely include some challenges to endure and some adversity to overcome. That's true for each of us just like it is for Olympic gold medalists. It’s not the path we would choose, of course, but it is a necessary part of the journey to becoming champions for ourselves. In the face of adversity, Suni Lee dug deep, fought hard, and returned to the Olympic stage this week to compete once again. She shared on Instagram that her comeback was about so much more than the pursuit of another medal. “It was me proving to myself that I can overcome hard things, and to hopefully inspire others to never let life’s setbacks stop you from going after your dreams.” If you’re here today facing some unexpected and unwelcome adversity on your journey to success, take a lesson from Suni Lee. She offers us a great reminder that while it's easy to celebrate those performing under the bright lights of the big stage, we should also appreciate the difficult journey that becoming a champion required them to endure. We should confirm what the sometimes harsh reality of high achievement looks like - and, if we’re serious about doing something meaningful and significant in our own lives - what it often requires from us. In our moments of challenge, we have to do what Suni Lee did. We have to prove to ourselves that we can overcome hard things, and prove that we are worthy of the winning outcome we say we’re after. -Travis