Tuesday, February 25, 2014

An Emotionally Strong Olympian

My husband came home yesterday and said he heard an uplifting story on NPR about our silver medalists in Women's Skeleton. (Skeleton is that event where a person jumps on a tiny sled and goes down the bobsled run head first at speeds of 80 miles per hour.) Noelle Pikus-Pace is a Mom of a six year old and two year old. She retired from the sport she dominated to spend more time with her family. Then she lost her third child in a miscarriage at 18 weeks. To help her deal with her sadness, her husband offered to take a leave of absence from work, and the whole family went to all her Skeleton Races so she could qualify for the 2014 Olympics. Her medal was a family celebration. Here is a video of the "Fastest Mom on Ice."




Note: While I was searching for articles on the internet I found this complaint that publically mentioning an athlete's miscarriage was discussing a "too personal problem" and detracted from the nature of her achievement in sport. Personally, I found the background information made her more of an inspiring role model to me. She's a physical hero and an emotional hero! I have to laugh with some recognition. This blog has frequently been criticized for talking about "too personal problems" in my life journey. Oh well.