Shaking Hands with Olympic Gold Medalist (by William)

Splash!!!  That was back in 1976 Montreal Olympics when swimmer John Naber set world records.  He backstroked 200 meters in less than 2 minutes.   He won 5 medals from this Olympics - 4 gold an 1 silver; how astonishing! He was the Michael Phelps of his time and also the king of the US Backstroke.
 

Last Wednesday, mom, dad, and I went to an event at the Crawford Family Forum @ KPCC.  The event was the 2018 Olympic Day celebration.  A few Olympians were there to talk about their experiences in competitions.  They also talked about personal hardship encountered in their life.  

Alyssa Anderson, a 2012 London Olympics gold medalist, talked about her childhood and how swimming changed her life for good.  She said "When I was young, I was a skinny, short child.  After I started swimming my body grew more fit.  I was glued to TV whenever the Olympic swimming competition was on."  

Wyomia Tyus won 100-meter sprint gold medals in both 1964 Tokyo Olympics and 1968 Mexico City Olympics.  She is the first ever athlete who claims back-to-back Olympic 100 meter title.  She said she loved touring the Olympics.  When she was in Tokyo in 1964, she loved the Japanese food so much that she gained five pounds.  But later she had to shed the newly-gained weight for the competition.

 

Not only did I enjoy the talks, but also liked the refreshments there.  There were sandwich rolls, cookies, popcorn, and a nice variety of drinks.  Of them all, the popcorn was the fanciest.  John Naber's friend has a popcorn factory in Chicago.  Once he learned about the event, he overnighted freshly-popped popcorn to the event.  The next fanciest thing was the various Coke products.  The Coca-Cola Co., an official Olympics sponsor, recently released four new flavors of Diet Coke.  With their presences in the event, I was able to sample them.  My favorite was the Twisted Mango flavor.  

After the talks, we met with Mr. Naber to express our gratitude.  I told him that I was also a swimmer.  He smiled at me fondly and said "Work hard and you will be capable of being the next Olympian."  He turned to my parents and said "Thanks for coming."  Then he shook my hand vigorously.  I thought I felt renewed energy from a hand once holding an Olympic gold medal, to a hand with strengths that are merely stirring.  I will never forget this special Olympic moment of my life.