Showing posts with label excellence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label excellence. Show all posts

Friday, January 9, 2009

Inspirational athlete: Tom Daley, swimmer

"You have to not care about what anyone else thinks if you are trying to excel in something."

This PE & Sport Today article is from August 2008. To receive the latest issue, subscribe here.

Newly-crowned European diving champion, teenager Tom Daley, talks about preparing for the Olympics and how he juggled school and sport.

Tom Daley is an extraordinary boy. As most children prepare to move from the comfort of their primaries up to ‘big school’, 10 year-old Tom was preparing to become British U18 Diving Champion. Then, in February this year, he qualified for the Beijing Olympics: he’ll be just 14 years and 79 days old when he dives for Britain at the world’s greatest sporting showpiece.

And in March 2008, Tom became European diving champion and with it wrote his name into the record books as Britain’s youngest diving gold medallist. On the way to the podium the teenager managed to dispatch both the current World Champion and World Cup champion in the Men’s 10m Platform.

Since his selection, the media have tried to establish just who exactly is the youngest ever Olympian. Does it really matter? Tom Daley has his sights set higher than that particular record, as PE & Sport Today found out.

At what age did you start diving and how did you get started?
I went along for swimming lessons at my local pool one day when I was eight years old and saw some children on the diving boards doing somersaults and thought that it looked exciting and would be a fun thing to try out. I had a go and just took to it.

Did you turn out to be a good swimmer too at that age?
Well, I had learned to swim quite early, at about three or four years old, and I got my 2,000m distance badge before I stopped my lessons. But no, I was just a regular swimmer.

When did you realise on your own that you were so talented?
Not until I won the British U18 title when I was 10. It was only then when it really sank in what I could potentially achieve.

Were you ever told you were not good enough?
Yes, at around the same age (10), I was learning a new dive and was standing on the platform, crying and saying that I couldn’t do it to my former coach. My current coach Andy Banks was there at the time. He went up to my coach and he told him that I was never going to make it. I think he changed his mind later!

How supportive are your teachers and your school (Eggbuckland Community College in Plymouth) in general?
They are very supportive of me. They give me extra work to do while I’m away diving and catch-up stuff when I return. My school has held special receptions for me, for example after my BBC award but I see school as an important support network for the good times and when things don’t go right too. They support me regardless of what happens with my diving.

Does your schoolwork suffer?
No, it doesn’t really suffer. I’m still in all the top sets but long term I’ll probably eventually have a tutor with me on the long trips away, when I’m training or in competition.

How are you treated by your fellow pupils? Is there any jealousy?
All my friends understand what I do and are very happy for me. I get the odd joke about diving and the kit I have to wear for my sport but it doesn’t bother me. You have to not care about what anyone else thinks if you are trying to excel in something. I try to stay focused.

Are you good at any other sports at school? Do PE teachers expect you to be good at other sports?
I don’t enjoy sports like football and rugby and I’m not very good at them, so generally ‘no’, I’m not particularly good at PE. My teachers and friends don’t naturally expect me to be good just because I’m good at diving, so that’s ok!

Do you think that you have inspired other young people you’ve known to become involved in diving?
If I have inspired any young people who are known to me or not to get involved in any sport – not just diving – then I’d consider that an honour.
As it’s not the most obvious sport for children to get involved in, do you have any ideas about how to make the sport more accessible?
It’s not easy, as there are only five Olympic diving pools in the UK (Plymouth, Southampton, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield). Perhaps if more children gave it a go, there would be more demand to build the pools.

(…We discuss dry land training where divers try out and perfect new dives before training in the pool. Athletes use rigs and harnesses with elastic cords to practice somersaults and twists…)

Working in the harnesses is really good fun. Maybe that could be a way of getting children to have a go at diving, without the pool first putting people off.

It’s quite a challenge for any experienced athlete to deal not only with the pressures of competition but also the demands of the media. Do you get any expert, formal assistance as part of your training?
As part of the Visa sponsorship programme, I have two mentors, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Steve Redgrave. They give me advice on how to handle any tricky aspects of being an elite athlete. I’ve got their mobile numbers, email and I can go on Facebook whenever I need to ask their advice.

Do you ever feel fear when you dive and, if so, how do you overcome it?
Yes, lots of divers experience fear. I occasionally get scared when I’m learning new dives and it can happen when I’m on the platform, in competition. The fear never permanently goes away but it gets much easier to deal with it. I’ve learned to block out any negatives and focus on what I need to do.

You could potentially compete in four or five Olympics. Do you have any fixed objectives about what you want to achieve?
I’d like to still be competing in 2024 but I don’t think I could give it all up before I’ve won Olympic Gold.

Do you have heroes in any other sports?
I’m impressed with Lance Armstrong. I read his book and could identify with his battles with cancer as my Dad had a brain tumor. What he achieved in his sport was amazing.

Do you feel that you get the support and facilities you need in the UK?
The facilities are not great in Plymouth but there are plans for improvements. The main issue for me is being able to have my family present at competitions, as it’s great to know they are there in the audience watching me. I’m not sure whether my parents can afford to travel to Beijing yet, so the money side can be a worry. Diving isn’t one of the high-profile sports so the funding is very limited.

What advice would you pass on to other pupils who dream of playing sport at an international level?
Work hard and success will follow. I believe that if you are constantly focused on what you want to achieve, the results will come.

Tina Ryan is a freelance journalist

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Friday, January 2, 2009

Limbs not needed for inspirational high school wrestler

Dustin Carter

Dustin Carter, Thu, 01 Jan 2009 3:33p.m.

This is not one of those typical stories about the sweet boy who overcame his disabilities – it is a story about an ornery brat who did it just the same.

"I was a trouble maker," says Dustin Carter. "Me and dad used to fight a lot.  I was very disrespectful."

Carter was not born troubled or

disabled, but when a child he contracted a rare blood disease that would eventually claim his limbs - all four of them. After that, Carter grew into a straight F student with a passion for apathy.

Until eighth grade, when he found - of all things - wrestling.

"I got beat pretty bad," says Carter.

"Well, they just get out there and just throw him around on the mat," says his dad.

Carter lost just about every time he set his torso in the ring, but the competition brought out a side of him no one had ever seen before.

"He's got heart," says his coach Nate Horne. "He's got the heart of a lion."

"I'm a pretty determined person," says Carter. "I'll sit at something and sit at it for hours until I get it."

Over the years he trained hard. By all accounts he became a model of self-discipline.  His grades went up and he actually started winning - winning more than anyone, other than Carter, could have ever imagined.

"There's not one day in my life, ever since I started wrestling, that I have not dreamed of going to the state tournament."

And last week, it happened. Carter made it to the state tournament.

"It was amazing. I looked up, I looked around, and then I got scared," he says. "I was like, I feel really small right now."

The Ohio tournament is actually one of the most competitive in the nation, and yet even here he was able to pull off a win. The victory placed Carter in the top 16 in his age group.

His final match - the last of his high school career - was a real knock-down drag-out. And although he lost the bout, he won the audience.

"I look up, and everybody is on their feet, and immediately my eyes started watering."

Carter says when you are disabled like he is, it is hard to get used to all the staring. But this kind of staring – that, he could get used to.
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

'Seven Pounds,' seven keys to Will Smith's success

Will Smith, photographed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, plays an IRS agent on a quest for redemption in Seven Pounds, opening Friday.

Will Smith, photographed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, plays an IRS agent on a quest for redemption in Seven Pounds, opening Friday.

NEW YORK — Spend seven seconds sitting across from Will Smith, and you'll never wonder why he's a superstar.

He's charming and attentive, observant and clever — without ever seeming to try. When he talks, he makes eye contact; when he laughs, it takes over his whole body.

"You gonna put that in the article, that you're playing footsie?" cracks Smith after feet collide under a table at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Though he seems happy-go-lucky, the former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air didn't end up where he is by accident. Like Ben Thomas, the painfully orderly and painstakingly wary IRS agent he plays in Seven Pounds, opening Friday, Smith, 40, is consistently in charge, on point and thinking ahead.

"That's one of the elements that attracted me to this idea — how much control you can have over your life, but how much you don't have once you relinquish it," he says. "I make choices in my life after working on this film. I found myself walking down the stairs and it's raining, and I found myself grabbing extra-hard on the railing. Just think, one slip — and that's it. You have to be conscious. You don't have control after you've set these dominoes in motion. Your control point is before you make this crucial mistake."

Seven Pounds may have made him think consciously about navigating slippery steps with care, but he has nurtured his career with nary a misstep, amassing $2.45 billion in box office in North America alone. Here's how he does it:

1. Think globally

Any film Smith makes, as a star or through his Overbrook production company, "has to be extraordinary, it has to be entertainment, it has to be art." And be "delivered to all people of the world."

Not every film fits neatly into that mold, including Seven Pounds, a non-linear story about his character making amends that has a shocking ending. It's "a bit of a stretch for us. The extraordinary entertainment art is easy, but because you can't actually talk about the movie, the delivery to all people of the world is slightly more difficult," Smith says.

He thinks about pitching everywhere from Peoria to Paris from the start. "If we don't know how to sell it, we're not going to begin — no matter how extraordinary I think the entertainment art is going to be. All I need is one visual, and I can sell that anywhere on Earth."

2. Talent at the top

Smith handpicks his directors. For Seven Pounds, he's re-teaming with Gabriele Muccino, who directed him to an Oscar nomination for 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness. The holiday hit starred Smith as a homeless man who breaks into the elite world of finance.

"He takes me to places that I'd never choose myself," Smith says. "It will be the biggest departures from who I am when I work with Gabriele. He sees me similarly as Michael Mann (Ali) does. He knows all my tricks. They erase all the Will Smith-ness."

Muccino, for instance, went so far as to alter the way Smith naturally makes eye contact. Smith's Ben Thomas never looks away, almost glares.

"He's trying to look under people's masks," says Smith. "I'm physically trying to look under people's masks. For me, it's a common courtesy to look away for a second when you're talking and you let people have their privacy for a second. This character never breaks eye contact. It's uncomfortable for me."

3. Mix it up, to a point

For every bombastic audience pleaser like Hancock, Smith tries also to release a more thought-provoking film like Seven Pounds.

"I have to challenge myself and push myself," Smith says. "My only job is to make sure I don't leave anything on the table, that I maximize what a young dude from Philly can do in the world of cinema. There's no telling what I can create at this point."

Two scripts he'd love to star in that Overbrook is developing are the stories of Nelson Mandela and Marvin Gaye.

"I'm not certain I'm actor enough yet," Smith admits. "I love both of those, and I need to make sure I'm man enough."

4. Preserve the Smith brand

Smith doesn't get busted for DUIs or punch or scream at paparazzi. "Not any more, not any more," he jokes.

His parents and grandmother instilled in him the belief that with privileges comes responsibility. Smith doesn't moan about the attention he gets, kvetch about the lack of privacy or lash out at reporters for asking personal questions.

"By being famous, you're afforded rights that other people who aren't famous aren't afforded," he says. "If I'm going to walk to the front of the line (at the restaurant) because I'm Will Smith, then I have to sign all the autographs. If I don't want to sign any autographs, I don't walk to the front of the line. It's that simple. Stand in the line with everybody else."

His image remains one of the most unblemished in Hollywood. The only question that surfaces is whether, because of his close friendship with outspoken Scientologist Tom Cruise, he, too, is a member of the controversial church. Smith repeatedly has denied it, saying he's a student of all religions.

Hitch co-star Eva Mendes says that off-screen, Smith is a bit racier than the clean-cut guy most people see. "He's funnier in person because his jokes get a little more daring. To this day, he doesn't call me Eva. He calls me Reva Melendez. He has this character he does named Redondo, an interviewer who never gets anyone's names right."

5. Cross color lines

With the exception of 2001's Ali (his other Oscar nomination), most of Smith's roles could have been played by him or Brad Pitt or Robert Downey Jr. The IRS agent he plays in Seven Pounds could have very easily been Caucasian, as could the bitter superhero in Hancock.

And that has been by design. Growing up in Philadelphia, Smith attended a mostly white Catholic elementary school and a mostly African-American high school. He lived in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, attended a Baptist church and admired the Muslim girls who lived one street over.

Along the way, Smith learned that laughter is collective and unifying. "Those universal elements became really clear in my experiences growing up."

Race is not something Smith dwells on in interviews, and it's not something often addressed in his films. "Being an American, this is the only place on Earth I'm even possible. My life is not possible anywhere else," he says.

It's a sentiment often echoed by President-elect Barack Obama, with whom Smith identifies.

On Election Day, Smith says, he didn't even have a beer. "I wanted to be totally sober. I wanted to see and feel and remember everything. The whole family was there. It was really fantastic — either way I knew it would be a historical evening. I wanted to be there and be aware," he says.

6. Be master of your domain

Eighteen years ago, Smith charmed audiences as the fast-talking, appealingly glib Fresh Prince. Today, his films gross an average $136 million. And Smith says he finally feels he's starting to own his profession.

"I was reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and he talks about the concept of 10,000 hours. That you don't really settle into any level of mastery until 10,000 hours, and I feel like I've just completed my 10,000 hours of story structure and filmmaking.

"Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist, which is my favorite book, he talks about the whole of the universe, and it's contained in one grain of sand. For years I've been saying that, and now it's really starting to expose itself to me. My own grain of sand has been story. The next 10 years will be my peak of innovation in filmmaking and just as a human being."

Since 1996's blockbuster Independence Day, Smith has generated a movie a year, sometimes two. When he signs on, he's fully committed.

"He's very firm with his own ideas and considerations about things," Muccino says. "He doesn't change his mind easily. If he says no, it's no. If he says yes, it's yes. He's a man of his word. In Italy we call them men of honor."

7. Leave nothing to chance

That includes his 11-year marriage to Jada Pinkett, with whom he has two kids: son Jaden, 10, and daughter Willow, 8. Smith also has son Trey, 16, from his first marriage.

"We did a business plan," Smith says. "Listen, everyone should do a marriage business plan. Why are you together? What's the point? Because he's cute? That's not going to hold up. It can't just be sex and somebody can cook. That's a really good purpose, but not for 40 years. Jada and I have connected to the purpose of our relationship, to teach and to continually learn about human interaction. Our marriage will have purpose for other married people."

Smith always wants to know the conclusion. Because if you know the end, you know precisely where you're going and how you're getting there.

"Jada and I sat down and asked, 'Where do we see ourselves?' We went to 40 years from now. We see ourselves some place where there are seasons. That's a big thing for Jada. We think there's mountains. We think we live on a golf course. We don't have more children — we have grandchildren.

"We are the greatest philanthropists that America has ever seen. We're going to try and get up there with Bill and Melinda Gates. We talked through all the elements of where we want to be so we can start, in this moment, designing our life toward that."

Yes, Will Smith has a plan for everything. But for people like Mendes, his success is the result of something that doesn't need so much preparation.

"Of course he's talented, of course he's sexy, of course he's got a body to die for, but who cares?" she says. "He's so full of light. We all want to be next to him and root for him. People want to be around it. He's a light force."
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