David Hearn’s 2000 Olympic Journal
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Bringing the family down under |
The International flair of Canoe & Kayak competition |
Win, lose or draw Medal or not, here I come |
|
The Olympic Courses |
Davey & Rebecca make Final |
The Man in the Arena |
MyPrimetime.com
The Ageless Olympian
by Kyle Noone
Davey
Hearn, 41, is in Sydney competing in his third Olympic games. He has been a
member of the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Team since 1977. He holds 18 national
titles.
Athletic
clichés do little to explain that sort of perseverance. Commentators will wax
on about "intangibles" and physical prowess. Hearn points to
something different.
True
endurance isn't about how long you go. Or what awards you win. It's how much
you enjoy what you're doing and how well you do it, whatever it is.
Hearn
won his first world championship in 1985 and his second 10 years later. He's
been the youngest and now he's the oldest. For him every year, at every age,
competition has never been about one medal or another, but about the thrill of
opportunity that lies just ahead. That's why, he says, he bounced back from a
shoulder surgery to win his latest national championship at age 41. And it's
why the thought of his 11/2-year-old kid gives him as much pleasure as the
image of a gold medal dangling from his neck.
He
has all the gold medal requisites: Natural physical talent. A tenacious
training schedule. Calm under pressure. But it has taken more than these traits
to excel in a sport as demanding as whitewater slalom.
"You
should never make any judgments as to what's possible ahead of time," he
says. "You've got to have an open mind, be open to the possibilities of
what you can do."
When
the Maryland native was just 13, a then-unknown local paddler named Jamie
McEwan came out of nowhere to surprise the world with a bronze in the `72
Olympic games. Hearn and his older sister Cathy — also a national team member
and two-time Olympic paddler — took notice. "We didn't ever say it to each
other," Hearn recalls, "but we thought to ourselves, if someone like
him can do it, maybe we can too."
Hearn has taken this attitude to, well, Olympian levels. Time after time people have counted him out, called him too old and doubted his chances. Time after time he has proved them wrong — for three decades and counting.
MyPrimetime.com
Olympic Insights by Kyle Noone
To
get Olympic-sized insight, go to an Olympian. Three-time competitor Davey Hearn
throws us some knowledge.
Hearn on battling back from injury and people counting him out:
"I'm
sure people, with the problems I had last year, probably discounted my chances
this year. And in a way that's an advantage because people, maybe they're not
taking me as serious as they need to. I just try to put that out of my mind as
much as possible and just focus on myself and my performance."
Hearn on focusing and being present:
"You
have a goal and you have a strategy towards reaching your goal but you don't
want to focus on that outcome. You want to be living in the present. Some of
those unpleasant parts of it, I feel they're worthwhile because they are what
let me perform at the top level."
Hearn on physically pushing himself:
"There's
a letting go of the run-of-the-mill concerns, with the daily sort of stressors.
When you are at your anaerobic threshold and your muscles are crying out for
more oxygen, there's no gray matter available to budget toward any of those
concerns. It's more of a survival in a way. And that's very cleansing for the
mind and for the soul."
Hearn on the Olympic ideal:
"In
a way it's passing the torch. That's the Olympic ideal. Passing that enthusiasm
for life — for having a dream, for working really hard to make it a reality—
from one generation to the next."
Hearn on valuing process, not results:
"That's
what I've learned over the years, is you can focus on the result, but, it's the
process that is probably what you are going to remember more of: the days,
weeks, months and years of experiences... There are so many in-betweens and
there is so much work, and thought, and life that goes into being able to
perform at the Olympics."
An
Olympic slalom canoe run takes less than three minutes. But the preparation
involves a lifetime.
"It's
not all about the result," says 41-year-old Davey Hearn. "Life isn't
just those three seconds of total success or utter failure. There are so many
in-betweens and there is so much work, and thought, and life that goes into
being able to perform at the Olympics."
With that in mind, read myprimetime.com's exclusive journal entries straight from Davey Down Under. We'll be with him every step of the way: the hectic first week of adjustment, the tense countdown toward the race, and the ecstasy — or agony — of his competition. Look for more entries as Hearn continues his Olympic bid.
