The following is an abridgment of a talked given by Robert L. Backman, “Swifter, Higher, Stronger,” Tambuli, Jul 1982, 24.
Few scenes inspire more awe than the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. In a gigantic stadium, thousands of fans cheer as a parade of athletes circles the track. Flags of more than a hundred nations wave. Color and spectacle bedazzle everyone’s eyes. Hundreds of pigeons are released symbolizing peace. Cannons roar. Then a runner, bearing a torch initially ignited by the sun’s rays in Olympia, Greece, trots into the stadium and sets the Olympic flame ablaze.
Every competitor hopes to win a gold medal. Those who do attain that high honor may notice three Latin words that are inscribed on every Olympic award: “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” That means, “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.” Since the Olympics began, that has been their story. The records broken and the gains in human achievement accomplished can be summarized by those three words.
Those same three words denote man’s eternal quest of improvement—-Citius, Altius, Fortius: Swifter, Higher, Stronger.
For years, it was felt that no man could run 1.6 kilometers in less than four minutes. Again and again, athletes worked hard in the attempt to run it in less than four minutes, until Roger Bannister, an English medical student, amazed the world by clocking a 3.59.4 (1.6 kilometers) at Oxford on May 6, 1954. Since then, dozens have shattered the old belief of man’s limited capacity.
After all is said and done, nothing works unless we do! Bannister, after breaking the four-minute barrier, defined desire as “the ability to take more out of yourself than you’ve got.” During the race in which he broke the records, he ordered himself, “Roger, you’re going to run if you have to run on your knees.” Bob Zuppke, a successful coach at Illinois University, believes there is always a little more to give. “If you ran as far and as fast and as long as you could, and sank to the ground in utter exhaustion, and you looked up and saw a big lion standing there, you could run some more, couldn’t you?” he asked.
Athletes train in pain because they are aware that in the actual race they will feel pain and they’ll have to continue in spite of it. Strange as it may seem, those athletes will tell you that when you go through pain, you achieve power. It hurts to stretch your lungs, to stretch your muscles. But when you do it, the next time you have more capacity and more power. It’s the same way in life.
The most outstanding example of individual effort [and versatile athleticism] that I know of is represented in the college career of Jim Thorpe. Of Lamanite ancestry, he attended Carlisle Indian School. There he compiled a record that has never been approached. He was one of the main players on the football team and was such a hard runner that for fun he would tell the other team which way he was coming. When his team had to kick the ball, he could kick it 64 meters.
One year little Carlisle Indian School defeated mighty Harvard University, with Thorpe kicking and running to score the points that won the game. Another time against Army Academy, he picked up one Army kick and ran 82.2 meters with it to score, but it was called back on a penalty. So Thorpe picked up the next kickoff and ran 86.8 meters to score!
In track and field, Carlisle Indian School faced a tough dual meet with strong, unbeaten Lafayette College (in Pennsylvania). Jim Thorpe came to the meet accompanied by one other man. Since Lafayette College had a squad of 48 athletes, an official said, “You mean the two of you are the whole Carlisle Indian School team?”
“No,” said Thorpe. “Only me. The other fellow is the student manager.”
Against Lafayette College that day, Thorpe won the high jump, broad jump, shotput, discus throw, 109 meter hurdles, 201 meter hurdles, and finished third in the 91.4 meter dash. Carlisle Indian School won the meet 71–41.
Side-note: As a kid, I idolized Jim Thorpe. I thought he was the perfect role model. Later in life I discovered that, like his Irish father before him, Jim Thorpe became a drunkard later in life, his wife and four kids left him over "desertion", was striped of his Olympic gold medals over technicalities, and died at a relatively young age of a heart attack.
World records are often made before the race is run.
“Somebody’s going to break the world record in the 200-meter backstroke,” predicted Jed Graef, an American swimmer at the 1964 Olympics. And who might that be? “Me!” said Graef. And he broke the record.
In tournament golf competition, there is a rule that a contestant must be disqualified if he signs an incorrect scorecard or turns his card in without signing it. A famous golfer named Gary Player did that once and was eliminated from a prestigious tournament. He was asked if someone in the scoring tent couldn’t have reminded him to sign his name on the score card.
“My friend,” Player replied, “there are responsibilities in life. You cannot shove your responsibilities onto the shoulders of someone else. This was my responsibility. I failed to do it, so I must suffer the consequences.”
Wade Bell, a Mormon 0.8 kilometer runner who ran in the Olympics, said, “Track is a proving ground. It’s a place where my mind can make my body do something it doesn’t want to do; where I can say I ran ten 402 meter runs today in 60 seconds each; that the last four runs were so hard I thought my legs would drop off, but that my mind kept me going.”
Too few are willing to pay the price to achieve greatness—in anything.
“Remove from your lives the things which keep you from doing your best,” said Dean Cromwell, an Olympic track coach.
After winning a silver medal in the 1960 Olympic 400-meter hurdles in Rome, Cliff Sushman fell in the 1964 Olympic trials and missed a chance to go to Tokyo. Several fans in his hometown wrote to Cliff expressing sympathy. His reply:
[Thomas Edison followed the same formula -- "I have not failed. I've just found 10000 ways that won't work."]
Karoly Takacs, a Hungarian, was recognized as the best pistol shot in the world. More than anything he wanted to win in the Olympics. But one day driving home, Takacs was in a car crash, and doctors had to amputate his right arm—his shooting arm.
Takacs’ recovery was slow. It wasn’t a physical challenge, but an emotional one. He had reached the lowest feeling of despair. People wanted to help but there was little they could do. Takacs began to avoid his friends; even his family didn’t know where he spent his time. But Karoly Takacs was preparing. In solitude he had trained his left arm and his aiming eye, a training that’s far more of an intellectual mastery than most people realize. By the next Olympics, Takacs was ready.
When the pistol event was over, this one-armed Hungarian stood, the cheers rising about him, on the topmost step of the winner’s platform with a gold medal around his neck.
Takacs showed us something more than his ability to shoot. He proved that human beings have a largely untapped recovery capacity. He discovered for himself the exciting fact that experiencing the deepest feeling of despair does not mean defeat, but that it just signals the end of downward movement. As one friend told me, “The bottom can be something to bounce on.”
“You can’t clap with one hand,” the Chinese proverb says. When you consider people, two individuals working together can accomplish as much as many individuals working separately. There is strength in unity.
At the National Collegiate Athletic Association track meet held at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah in June 1967, four men from the University of Southern California lowered the world record for the 402 meter relay by one full second. The time of 38.6 seconds for 402 meters becomes remarkable compared to 9.1 seconds, the world’s fastest time for the 91.4 meter. Each member of the University of Southern California’s winning team averaged 8.7 seconds per 91.4 meters!
The joint actions of individuals working together can increase effectiveness. Life is a cooperative venture. It requires leaders and followers. It requires compromise with one another to get along. And it requires unselfish charity for our fellowman.
A true champion, after giving everything he can, calls on God for extra help.
Cathy Ferguson, age 17, was struggling in the backstroke swimming event, 15 centimeters behind the leader. She could hardly feel her arms and legs, but kept battling—8 meters, 7 meters, 6 meters, 5 meters. She kept swimming harder, until she pushed through to win. In that moment of glory, she could hardly control her tears, but she said, “I just kept praying, ‘Please God, help me keep going.’ ”
Fred Hansen, nervous and worried because he was behind in the pole vault, stopped during the heat of competition to read a letter from his father, reminding him that “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31). The next jump Fred soared over the crossbar to set a new Olympic record.
Although I will never participate in the Olympic games, the Olympic motto and the Olympic spirit still have deep significance for me. I have made, "Swifter, Higher, Stronger," my personal mission statement in regards to eternal progression. My hope is that these ideals will continue to provide me with a motivation to strive constantly to improve my performance in all aspects of my life -— to do my best, lengthen my stride, to truly become a champion.
“Not everyone can be a champion—not everyone can be an athlete—but everyone can do his best to try to make something of himself.” —Joe Frazier, Heavy Weight Boxing Champion.
----------------
Listening to: Mozart - Piano Sonata No16
Few scenes inspire more awe than the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. In a gigantic stadium, thousands of fans cheer as a parade of athletes circles the track. Flags of more than a hundred nations wave. Color and spectacle bedazzle everyone’s eyes. Hundreds of pigeons are released symbolizing peace. Cannons roar. Then a runner, bearing a torch initially ignited by the sun’s rays in Olympia, Greece, trots into the stadium and sets the Olympic flame ablaze.
Every competitor hopes to win a gold medal. Those who do attain that high honor may notice three Latin words that are inscribed on every Olympic award: “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” That means, “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.” Since the Olympics began, that has been their story. The records broken and the gains in human achievement accomplished can be summarized by those three words.
Those same three words denote man’s eternal quest of improvement—-Citius, Altius, Fortius: Swifter, Higher, Stronger.
Analysis of a Champion:
In a talk entitled, Swifter, Higher, Stronger, emeritus general authority, Robert L. Backman, offers nine characteristics of a CHAMPION:- Desire
- Individual Effort
- Faith in Self
- Honesty
- Discipline
- Expect some Failure
- Bounce Back
- Team Work
- Faith in God
1. DESIRE
For years, it was felt that no man could run 1.6 kilometers in less than four minutes. Again and again, athletes worked hard in the attempt to run it in less than four minutes, until Roger Bannister, an English medical student, amazed the world by clocking a 3.59.4 (1.6 kilometers) at Oxford on May 6, 1954. Since then, dozens have shattered the old belief of man’s limited capacity.
After all is said and done, nothing works unless we do! Bannister, after breaking the four-minute barrier, defined desire as “the ability to take more out of yourself than you’ve got.” During the race in which he broke the records, he ordered himself, “Roger, you’re going to run if you have to run on your knees.” Bob Zuppke, a successful coach at Illinois University, believes there is always a little more to give. “If you ran as far and as fast and as long as you could, and sank to the ground in utter exhaustion, and you looked up and saw a big lion standing there, you could run some more, couldn’t you?” he asked.
Athletes train in pain because they are aware that in the actual race they will feel pain and they’ll have to continue in spite of it. Strange as it may seem, those athletes will tell you that when you go through pain, you achieve power. It hurts to stretch your lungs, to stretch your muscles. But when you do it, the next time you have more capacity and more power. It’s the same way in life.
2. INDIVIDUAL EFFORT
The most outstanding example of individual effort [and versatile athleticism] that I know of is represented in the college career of Jim Thorpe. Of Lamanite ancestry, he attended Carlisle Indian School. There he compiled a record that has never been approached. He was one of the main players on the football team and was such a hard runner that for fun he would tell the other team which way he was coming. When his team had to kick the ball, he could kick it 64 meters.
One year little Carlisle Indian School defeated mighty Harvard University, with Thorpe kicking and running to score the points that won the game. Another time against Army Academy, he picked up one Army kick and ran 82.2 meters with it to score, but it was called back on a penalty. So Thorpe picked up the next kickoff and ran 86.8 meters to score!
In track and field, Carlisle Indian School faced a tough dual meet with strong, unbeaten Lafayette College (in Pennsylvania). Jim Thorpe came to the meet accompanied by one other man. Since Lafayette College had a squad of 48 athletes, an official said, “You mean the two of you are the whole Carlisle Indian School team?”
“No,” said Thorpe. “Only me. The other fellow is the student manager.”
Against Lafayette College that day, Thorpe won the high jump, broad jump, shotput, discus throw, 109 meter hurdles, 201 meter hurdles, and finished third in the 91.4 meter dash. Carlisle Indian School won the meet 71–41.
Side-note: As a kid, I idolized Jim Thorpe. I thought he was the perfect role model. Later in life I discovered that, like his Irish father before him, Jim Thorpe became a drunkard later in life, his wife and four kids left him over "desertion", was striped of his Olympic gold medals over technicalities, and died at a relatively young age of a heart attack.
3. FAITH IN SELF
World records are often made before the race is run.
“Somebody’s going to break the world record in the 200-meter backstroke,” predicted Jed Graef, an American swimmer at the 1964 Olympics. And who might that be? “Me!” said Graef. And he broke the record.
4. HONESTY
In tournament golf competition, there is a rule that a contestant must be disqualified if he signs an incorrect scorecard or turns his card in without signing it. A famous golfer named Gary Player did that once and was eliminated from a prestigious tournament. He was asked if someone in the scoring tent couldn’t have reminded him to sign his name on the score card.
“My friend,” Player replied, “there are responsibilities in life. You cannot shove your responsibilities onto the shoulders of someone else. This was my responsibility. I failed to do it, so I must suffer the consequences.”
5. DISCIPLINE
Wade Bell, a Mormon 0.8 kilometer runner who ran in the Olympics, said, “Track is a proving ground. It’s a place where my mind can make my body do something it doesn’t want to do; where I can say I ran ten 402 meter runs today in 60 seconds each; that the last four runs were so hard I thought my legs would drop off, but that my mind kept me going.”
Too few are willing to pay the price to achieve greatness—in anything.
“Remove from your lives the things which keep you from doing your best,” said Dean Cromwell, an Olympic track coach.
6. EXPECT SOME FAILURE
After winning a silver medal in the 1960 Olympic 400-meter hurdles in Rome, Cliff Sushman fell in the 1964 Olympic trials and missed a chance to go to Tokyo. Several fans in his hometown wrote to Cliff expressing sympathy. His reply:
Don’t feel sorry for me. I feel sorry for some of you.
In a split second all the many years of training, pain, sweat, blisters, and agony of running were simply and irrevocably wiped out. But I tried. I would much rather fall knowing I had put forth an honest effort than never to have tried at all … Each of you is capable of trying to make your own personal Olympic team, whether it be a school football team, the singing club, the List of students who receive high grades in school, or whatever your role may be. Unless you strive to achieve more than is readily available to you, how can you be sure what you can attain?
… Certainly I was disappointed in falling flat on my face. However, there is nothing I can do about it now but get up, pick the cinders from my wounds, and take one more step, followed by one more and one more, until the steps turn into kilometers and the kilometers turn into success.
I know that I may never reach my goal. The odds are against me, but I have something in my favor—desire and faith.
Some of you have never known the satisfaction of doing your best in sports, the joy of excelling in class, the wonderful feeling of completing the job and looking back on it knowing you have done your best.
…There is plenty of room at the top, but no room for anyone to sit down.
[Thomas Edison followed the same formula -- "I have not failed. I've just found 10000 ways that won't work."]
7. BOUNCE BACK
Karoly Takacs, a Hungarian, was recognized as the best pistol shot in the world. More than anything he wanted to win in the Olympics. But one day driving home, Takacs was in a car crash, and doctors had to amputate his right arm—his shooting arm.
Takacs’ recovery was slow. It wasn’t a physical challenge, but an emotional one. He had reached the lowest feeling of despair. People wanted to help but there was little they could do. Takacs began to avoid his friends; even his family didn’t know where he spent his time. But Karoly Takacs was preparing. In solitude he had trained his left arm and his aiming eye, a training that’s far more of an intellectual mastery than most people realize. By the next Olympics, Takacs was ready.
When the pistol event was over, this one-armed Hungarian stood, the cheers rising about him, on the topmost step of the winner’s platform with a gold medal around his neck.
Takacs showed us something more than his ability to shoot. He proved that human beings have a largely untapped recovery capacity. He discovered for himself the exciting fact that experiencing the deepest feeling of despair does not mean defeat, but that it just signals the end of downward movement. As one friend told me, “The bottom can be something to bounce on.”
8. TEAMWORK
“You can’t clap with one hand,” the Chinese proverb says. When you consider people, two individuals working together can accomplish as much as many individuals working separately. There is strength in unity.
At the National Collegiate Athletic Association track meet held at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah in June 1967, four men from the University of Southern California lowered the world record for the 402 meter relay by one full second. The time of 38.6 seconds for 402 meters becomes remarkable compared to 9.1 seconds, the world’s fastest time for the 91.4 meter. Each member of the University of Southern California’s winning team averaged 8.7 seconds per 91.4 meters!
The joint actions of individuals working together can increase effectiveness. Life is a cooperative venture. It requires leaders and followers. It requires compromise with one another to get along. And it requires unselfish charity for our fellowman.
9. FAITH IN GOD
A true champion, after giving everything he can, calls on God for extra help.
Cathy Ferguson, age 17, was struggling in the backstroke swimming event, 15 centimeters behind the leader. She could hardly feel her arms and legs, but kept battling—8 meters, 7 meters, 6 meters, 5 meters. She kept swimming harder, until she pushed through to win. In that moment of glory, she could hardly control her tears, but she said, “I just kept praying, ‘Please God, help me keep going.’ ”
Fred Hansen, nervous and worried because he was behind in the pole vault, stopped during the heat of competition to read a letter from his father, reminding him that “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31). The next jump Fred soared over the crossbar to set a new Olympic record.
Conclusion
At the moment I shook hands over the net after losing yet another tennis set to my friend, Zack, I may not have technically been "the champion," but my heart and mind burned with the fire of champions.Although I will never participate in the Olympic games, the Olympic motto and the Olympic spirit still have deep significance for me. I have made, "Swifter, Higher, Stronger," my personal mission statement in regards to eternal progression. My hope is that these ideals will continue to provide me with a motivation to strive constantly to improve my performance in all aspects of my life -— to do my best, lengthen my stride, to truly become a champion.
“Not everyone can be a champion—not everyone can be an athlete—but everyone can do his best to try to make something of himself.” —Joe Frazier, Heavy Weight Boxing Champion.
----------------
Listening to: Mozart - Piano Sonata No16
great story about the hungarian. I think a true champion is even stronger of mind than of body.
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