"Everything you need is already inside"

I'm a sucker for those stories that surround either the Olympics - or for that matter, any other sporting event - where the producers have found those they-did-it-through-way-more-adversity-than-you'll-ever-know things and then set it to music purely to make you cry. I haven't seen Rudy, nor will I. I'm just going to cry like a freaking baby. When I read Lance Armstrong's autobiography, I was on a plane and I'm sure people thought I was crazy - I was crying all over the place. Kerry Strug doing the second vault in '96 with a broken ankle, perfectly landing on one foot? Oh my GOD, tears are in my eyes right now. Hell, sometimes they don't even need to put Morgan Freeman's voice and a sad ole tune behind it. I remember very clearly sitting in the beat-up wingback chairs in my living room in 1992 watching Derek Redmond's dad helping him cross the finish line after he tore a hamstring mid-race. Maybe it's the estrogen you get pumping in you as you get older, because I didn't cry at it then, but man, I can't even THINK about it without blubbering.

So Nike decides to make a commercial for people like me.


Go to this site and click on the names that run at the bottom as the commercial plays. You can see the stories behind them and bawl your eyes out for a good couple of minutes as well. I think Julie Moss, David Lega, and Ralph Boston are my favorites. And John McEnroe, because I like brats.

The title of this post is a quote from Bill Bowerman. I never know when and how to properly cite things.