Going for gold

American Nastia Liukin won the all-around gymnastics gold medal, last night/morning (depending on your time zone). Watch out, Nastia, I totally could have been a gold medalist too if I’d stuck to my gym classes as a kid! (Never mind that I am 5’9″ and would be a lumbering giant on the mat.)

When I watch sports on TV, I sometimes wonder if I could bike a century in record time or be a world class volleyball player if I’d only had a love for the sport and dedicated myself to it for over a decade. Or are some people’s bodies just naturally designed to be better at certain talents than others? I used to wonder if I could have been a world-class pianist if I hadn’t dropped my piano lessons after three years.

I don’t regret giving up gym classes. Going over the uneven bars was SCARY. And the balance beam is very narrow and was as high off the ground as I was tall. But you know what the strangest thing is about looking at [...]

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