Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Shaun White Bummer

I'm pretty sure that everyone has something or someone that they pay special attention to during the Olympics.  Princess Bear (PB) is all about Gracie Gold and even did a little report on her.  My mom is a Shani Davis fan for no other reason that he's a Chicago boy.  Personally I'm a Shaun White fan.  I love that he's as competitive as he is.  I also love the fact that he is someone who has overcome some major challenges and come through it smelling like a rose.  It hasn't been mentioned in this round of the Olympics (at least what I've seen) so many people might not know or remember that Shaun was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot (if you want you can read about it HERE)
He underwent 2 open heart surgeries before the age of 1.  Now granted his little personality wasn't fully developed at that point but what are the chances that living through something like that gave him some of the fighter attitude he has?  I love reading about people who have overcome in situations like this.  I kind of keep a mental file of famous people who have overcome adversity.  I do this so that perhaps when the going gets a bit hard for PB I can look at her and say "check out X and what they overcame.  They did it and so can you". 

That is why I'm a Shaun White fan.  Therefore it was a major bummer to see him come in fourth place yesterday.  You can say it wasn't his day or the conditions on the halfpipe weren't what they should be.  You can say all kinds of things.  None of it really matters in the long run.  Just a bummer, know what I mean? 

To end this on a happy note though did you see Shaun jumping the barrier to greet the little boy that was there on a wish through Make a Wish?  Maybe this is another reason I like Shaun White.  He might be competitive but he seems like a good guy.  I love seeing him in the Saint Jude commercials.  Again, he just seems like a good guy. So for the little boy that Shaun went out of his way to say "hi" you know that is going to be one of the never to forget moments in his life.  So while he didn't medal in Sochi I guess I'll say he medaled in life. 

3 comments:

Leigh said...

The Olympics are one of the few things we used to enjoy television for.

Sarah said...

I must say that watching the Olympics is definitely always something I look forward too. I've also loved the coverage on the Today show. They're doing a great job showing different aspects of Russian life.

Staci@LifeAtCobbleHillFarm said...

I was pretty bummed for him too. Love the Olympics. :)