WHAT WE CAN LEARN
FROM
BIG, “OLYMPIC”
DISAPPOINTMENTS
The games of the XXX Olympiad began
disappointingly for me.
·
Not
that the opening ceremony wasn’t an amazing-but-sometimes-baffling theatrical/historical
extravaganza.
·
Not
that the filtered-by-commercialized TV, small screen experience could have been
better.
·
Not
that the entrance of the sky-diving-in-pink Queen far exceeded the distracting
and superfluous Rowan Atkinson flatulence “humour” (note the Brit spelling).
·
And
more such …
No, no, no and no.
What
I wanted – and felt disappointed by because I did not get – was:
Roger Bannister
 |
Roger Bannister
May 6, 1954
Miracle Mile
3:59.4 |
If
you have even an inkling of where I’m going with this, then perhaps you were
disappointed as I was.
Where was Roger
Bannister?
He was present, but not specifically honored. Many (including British bookies
who, pre-ceremony, had him as the 1:1 favorite) suspected he would be the
individual given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame in the stadium.
Why? On May 6, 1954, the
Englishman, Roger Bannister, set a record many think is –
The most remarkable
human achievement
in any sport.
He
ran the first sub-4-minute mile in recorded history.
His time: 3 minutes 59.4
seconds.
Yes, I know: The story of Roger
Bannister and the “breaking” of the 4-minute mile barrier is a bit “old.”
But
it has an Olympic twist that is seldom discussed, but should be.
Bannister was an
Olympian in 1952.
But he did not win the Gold as you
might have expected from the first man to run a less-than-four-minute mile.
Nor
did he win Silver.
He
did not even win a Bronze medal.
However –
(and, as you can see,
it’s a big “however”)
He's
pretty sure his Olympic-sized disappointment was the reason he pursued the
supposedly impossible mark.
Olympic “Ah Ha”
moment:
"I failed, came in fourth in the
1,500 meters," Bannister told author James M. Clash. "Very disappointed is an understatement.
But if I had gotten a Gold medal, I probably would have retired and never
pursued the four-minute mile."
TGIM “Ah Ha” moment: Disappointment
should not curtail us in the everyday pursuit of our hard-to-achieve goals. We
should see the opportunity in not fully realizing a goal and apply a bit of
mental judo to building what-not-to-do-again and what-to do-differently skills
to avoid a disappointing performance on the next big challenge.
Like breaking the
4-minute barrier.
“The mile” isn’t run in the Olympics or the world championships. So the 2012 Summer Olympics won’t change the
current record.
But
the details of the Bannister story are still worth knowing and drawing
inspiration from. And, at this point in these track-and-field-focused Olympic
days, they’re particularly appropriate.
It begins like this: Accurate times for
running a mile (1609 meters) weren’t recorded until the late 1850s. The first
accurately recorded “record” time for the mile was 4 minutes 23 seconds in
1858.
Nearly
a century later an under-4-minute mile was thought to be beyond the physical
limit of the human body.
Here,
in his own words, is Bannister’s recounting of the situation:
“The world record was
four minutes, 1.4 seconds, held by Sweden's Gunder Haegg. It had been stuck
there for nine years. It didn't seem logical to me, as a physiologist/doctor,
that if you could run a mile in four minutes, one and a bit seconds, you
couldn't break four minutes.
“But it had become a
psychological as well as a physical barrier. In fact Australian John Landy,
having done four minutes, two seconds, three times, is reported to have commented,
‘It's like a wall.’”
But
in the face of this, Bannister recounts, “I
just couldn't see the psychological side.”
Clearly
Roger Bannister’s post-Olympic feat is irrefutable evidence that failure isn’t
fatal. Clearly he had an understanding of the Motivational, Inspirational
Poster Point:
Believe
that you can reach a goal
that was previously perceived
as unreachable.
And
while that’s a useful mindset and basic starting point for overcoming
disappointment and enjoying lofty achievements, it’s only a foundation.
TV Time Out: Now might be a good
place in the story to take a bit more than 4 minutes and, if you are so
inclined, see the race itself and hear Bannister commenting on his run, here: Bannister Miracle Mile.
Or
you can skip it and keep reading.
Just watch this: The fact that Bannister, after a
disappointing Olympics, set an imagined-unachievable goal for himself and then
accomplished it IS NOT NECESSARILY THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT here.
IMHO: For TGIM
purposes the more impactful, good-for-you-and-me point is –
What happened next. Just six weeks after
Bannister broke the 4-minute barrier, Landy, the Australian, set a new, faster
mark with 3:58.
But wait, there’s
more:
Within the following 12 months, dozens
of athletes went on to break the 4-minute mile.
Fast forward to 2012: The world record for
the mile as of this posting is held by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco at
3:43.13. (Svetlana Masterkova of Russia holds the women's record of 4:12.56.)
TGIM ACTION
IDEA: Barriers? What barriers? What was once felt to be impossible is
commonplace today – the standard of all professional middle distance runners.
TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Even seemingly
insurmountable barriers can be overcome with knowledge, understanding,
dedication, practice, coaching, advancing technology and –
Teamwork. “Wait,” you say. “One
man’s triumphant crashing through a human speed record is about teamwork?”
You bet. If you watched the
record-breaking race or read/hear virtually anything Bannister has to say about
it, he specifically comments on the importance of his teammates and the
pacesetters – Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway -- in creating his
under-4-minute Miracle Mile performance.
TGIM Challenge: Who’s on your team?
Whose team are you on? Are you helping each other or hindering your combined
efforts. Are you all moving forward in a concerted, coordinated effort to avoid
the disappointment of falling short of a goal? If not, why not?
Learn from Olympic
performances.
Over 10,000 competitors with World-Class Goals and accomplishments must be
doing something effective. And even the least successful athlete will
acknowledge the absolutely critical support of teammates.
And speaking of World-Class
Goals:
How are doing with yours at this Olympic Summer Slump time of the 2012?
Disappointed?
Then JDS. (For those who need
reminding: Just Do … “Stuff”) It’s OK to be refreshing and
rethinking, refiguring and rejiggering your goals. In fact it’s more than OK;
it’s absolutely the right thing to do.
Just
ask Roger Bannister.
On
the 50th anniversary of running his Miracle Mile, Bannister was interviewed by
the BBC's sports correspondent Rob Bonnet. At the conclusion of the interview,
Bannister was asked whether he looked back on the sub-4-minute mile as the most
important achievement of his life.
Surprising answer: Bannister replied to
the effect that no, he rather saw his subsequent forty years of practicing as a
neurologist and some of the new procedures he introduced as being more
significant. His major contribution in academic medicine was in the field of
autonomic failure, an area of neurology focusing on illnesses characterized by
certain automatic responses of the nervous system.
So
Bannister worked at proving that neurologic failure doesn’t have to be fatal
either.
Maybe
he’ll be lighting the torch at the next gathering of the Royal Medical Society.
I’ll
be cheering for that, too.
Geoff
Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8
Depot Square
P. S. It’s not as if Bannister was totally without
Olympic achievement and playing a key role in an opening ceremony. Prior to his
1952 attempted run for Olympic Gold, a 19-year old Bannister was helping the
British organizing committee at the 1948 London Olympiad.
His running
skills came in handy at the Opening Ceremony, when the Brits suddenly realized
they didn’t have a flag to carry in.
His
Olympic boss told young Bannister to hustle back to the car park and find his
vehicle, which had a flag in the back seat. Bannister found the car but didn’t
have a key. So he grabbed a brick and broke a car window to get the flag.
“A
policeman who was in charge saw, and an Army sergeant had to restrain him and
say what we were doing,” Bannister reports.
No disappointing performance then. In the face of
mounting time pressure he ran back to the stadium and delivered the flag just
as the British contingent was marching into the stadium. In newsreel footage of
the event, you can notice the Union Jack is smaller than the flags carried by
other countries.
Attitude check. 
