Who can forget Silken’s incredible comeback in the heart testing and muscle tearing sport of rowing? Some people had written her off after a training accident which had shattered her leg in crippling fashion. I guess somebody forgot to tell her that her athletic career should have been over. She wasn't prepared to live with that. In a legendary 'agony and ecstasy' journey doctors pieced her leg back together and she pieced her dreams back together with a brutal and oft times painful training regime.
As her challengers in the gold medal round watched in disbelief she gave it all in the race of her life and came through with a medal of gold and a smile of joy that lit up a nation.
And, from Wiki, what really happened:
Arguably the most famous incident in Laumann's life was during her training leading up to the 1992 Summer Olympics. One of the odds-on favourites to capture a gold medal, her shell was involved in a collision with the boat of German coxless pair team Colin von Ettinghausen and Peter Hoeltzenbein on May 15, 1992. Despite serious injuries to her leg...five operations and a total stay in the hospital of approximately three weeks, Laumann was back on the water training by late June. Her efforts paid off with a bronze medal...
I bet she was rowing South at the time, just like the Niagara River.
Good old Stockwell:
ReplyDelete"Other than noticing he was all sinew with zero body fat there was nothing on the surface that revealed a will of absolute iron inside that chiseled frame..."
...supported by sweaty, rippling muscles glistening in the soft light of a early morning. Oh, my God, he's beautiful! Now, where was I again?..