|  They
told him to quit, that he wasn't good enough, but figure skater
Paul Wylie refused to listen.
When
he stepped off the plane in Washington,
D.C., following the 1992 Winter Games, and everyone
in the terminal started clapping, Paul Wylie almost stopped
in his tracks. Who's behind me? He wondered. Despite the silver
medal in his pocket, he couldn't believe that the applause
was for him. From that moment on, Paul recognized that his
life would never be the same. 
The
silver medal he earned in Albertville,
France, ushered the 27-year-old figure skater into a new existence.
He was no longer a nobody who choked at big events, like the
1988 Calgary Olympics, where he finished an unimpressive
10th. No longer the recipient
of advice from judges who, after Paul's performance in the
'91 World Championships, suggested that he quit: "Make
room for the younger skaters."
No
longer the target of loaded questions from reporters covering
the '91 Olympic Trials ("What are you doing here?").
No longer the skater incapable of finishing ahead of
U.S. National Champion Todd
Eldredge or three-time defending World Champion
Kurt
Browning of Canada.
Now Paul Wylie was an Olympic hero. An athlete who kept going when doubters suggested he quit. A recent Harvard
University graduate who had frequently fantasized
about life without grueling
hours on the ice, but who persevered
anyway. A young man who had discovered and demonstrated that goals can be reached no matter how many obstacles and
botched
attempts lie in the way.
"A
reporter who interviewed me at the Closing Ceremonies told
me, 'You came here an unknown and now you go home a hero,'"
Paul says. "I thought that was interesting, because I
was in France and unaware of how my journey was unfolding
on U.S. television. It wasn't until I stepped off the plane
that I realized people considered me a hero. They were changed
by my story. They were changed by the fact that I was able
to persevere and win the silver medal even though almost everyone
had counted me out."
At
times, Paul had almost counted himself out. "Two months
before the '92 Olympics, USA
Today did a survey of different athletes and asked,
'How often do you contemplate retirement?' The choices were:
'yearly,' 'monthly' or 'weekly.'
"I
wrote, 'daily,' because it was hard to keep going. But I just
decided, I'm going to persevere and hang in there, because
I have a shot."
Things
definitely changed in 1992 in Albertville. "To have my
story be one that brought tears to people's eyes, because
of the way it turned around — that changed my life as well,"
Paul says. "I looked at my skating career and saw it
rewritten and beautiful, as opposed to a big disappointment
and many years struggling toward some goal but not reaching
it."
With
medal in hand, Paul was suddenly ushered
into a world of lucrative
endorsements
and figure-skating world tours, of exclusive events and autograph
seekers. Everything you might expect of a celebrity
hero, but none of what Paul himself believes merits the honor
of that title.
"What
makes a true hero is selfless service," he says. "Or
someone whose life and actions inspire you to be better and
to be a bigger person. I don't think that what I did was selfless
service. But God used the story of my life to inspire others."
Heroism,
Paul has observed, requires daily maintenance. Just as a skater
achieves perfection by practicing small parts of his larger
routine day after day, a hero must look for ways to serve
on a regular basis — not just in a crisis or more visible
situation.
an Olympic medal loses its luster
after years of storage, a hero will lose his credibility
if he stops looking to the needs of others. When Paul joins
the thousands of others watching the Olympics in Salt
Lake City, he knows that behind the scenes of each
victory, of each record-setting finish, stand countless stories
of everyday heroes. Heroes who refuse to give up.
↑TOP (657
words)
|
Listen
Todd
Eldrege is a World Champion and six-time World medallist. He is a six-time
U.S. National Champion and a three time Olympian. Before the 2002 Games
concluded, Todd officially announced his retirement from Olympic skating.
With this announcement, Todd's eligible career has ended. At his retirement
press conference, Todd stated that his career, as a whole, has been filled
with highs and lows. He hopes that he will be remembered for working hard
to achieve his goals and persevering. 
Kurt Browning is Canada's Four Time Canadian and World
Figure Skating Champion. He is one of the most celebrated skaters in his
native country of Canada, and the world. Kurt has landed himself a spot
in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first man to complete
a Quadruple Jump at the World Figure Skating Championships in Budapest,
Hungary on March 25, 1988. 
Harvard University, a private, coeducational institution
of higher education, is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the oldest
university in the United States.
There’s no better daily source for articles about the
USA and its culture than syndicated features from USA TODAY, the pioneer
of modern newspapers. Every day, subscribers receive 20-25 articles on
Trends Across the USA, News, Money, Entertainment, Life and Health, Sports
and Opinion. 
Salt Lake City, Utah hosts the 2002 Winter Olympic
Games starting February 8, 2002. The games lasted 17 days and featured
more than 180 events in 15 different sports.
