Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard has book out-7 medal Olympic swimmer

[skateluvr]

This is not a book about the upside, look at me yada yada, I am so great. The downside was her eating disorder after modeling contracts came, drugs, alcohol, cutting. Fortunately she had a husband who loved her and parents who loved her. She was on Dr Phil and it was a rerun it seems. She was planning then (last year? ) to compete in Olympics 2012 and she looked fit and beautiful, and even has a son at 30. I don't know if she tried for the swim team and failed or not this year.

Anyone remember her? & her medals over 2 or 3 olympics? I remembered the name and face but never knew anything about her. For those with the perfection gene and the food disorder problem, it is an inspiring story as she has a happy ending. Perhaps some of you who follow swimming or Olympic swimmers saw this the first time it aired. I don't usually watch dr Phil, but he has many good shows, I'm sure.

 

[Olympia]

I remember Amanda Beard. She was one of those wonder teens, I think. I had heard about her book. I feel so sad when I hear of someone who cuts herself. (And it's usually a girl, but not always.) I'm glad she's found some healing and stability.

 

[skateluvr]

Yes, she has a wonderful life. She was 14 at her first Olympics, unless I got that wrong. It appears she was conflicted whhen she grew to 5 foot 8 inches and a healthy 130 pounds. The evil rag trade/'fashion' industry (and they are getting evil in a very cheeky way) called her fat. So she did not know what body type to shoot for, but could not sustain work outs to stay a champion swimmer on 700 calories a day. She looks great, hair, teeth, skin, so I got the feeling that she was not in this phase for long, as it did not do lasting damage. I wondered that she likely had superior genes and that her body did not suffer any residual defects. She is the picture of health, really. She married a photog. I am curious now how she came to be not in this Olympics-her family expressed no worry as she had an adoring hubby and little one who keeps her world grounded. I forget the title. Cutting is more common than you might think. I have not read about it, but it is a way of showing others you are suffering emotionally, as well as the actual bloodletting causes endorphins to be released. The physiological process is I'm sure much more complicated than what I said but I don't feel drawn to learning more about why this is the case. Too distressing, but it clearly has a small high associated with it. She did ecstasy and cocaine for a short time.

I was surprised as she had a long career and found myself wondering if drugs besides steroids were used by Olympic athletes when training. People speak of cocaine as giving one a very invincible feeling. Our whole national policy on this and the approach to incarceration of poor for pot is insane. If you are famous or have money, you can get help, drug couseling, rehab, therapy for any issue. My state once known for high taxes, does not do what it used to. Incarcerate rather than rehab. And therapy has become for the rich. So I wish these folks peddling books would talk about things like that. My state in the 2010 elections apparently has a lot of alcoholics, or the alcohol lobby of store owners has reached critical mass and the money easily got the populace to drop the taxes on alcohol, which were (rightly) what paid for rehab programs. I wish this story and book were about a larger group of people and what she was doing for others. Perhaps I misjudge her, but I came away feeling it was still all about her, her beauty, her talent, etc. and attention seeking without showing a strong reason to write it. Perhaps I misjudge her, but with celebrities always writing these types of books as their careers wane, I just did not sense the concern, or the whole thing wasn't a selfless act ...hard to explain what I mean. I just came away thinking she was still most concerned with everyone liking her, being perfectly beautiful. It seemed very narcissistic (sp) and though she had gotten away from using, I did not sense it had ever taken her life to the bottom. These users usually are very concerned to save others from losing it all.

Perhaps I will read Amazon reviews to see what those who invested in the book and took time to read it have to say. But if this is what great success at Olympics so young brought, it made me wonder about the crushed dreams that many go home with this August. It seems most Olympians have stellar families and the support grounds them. We see the cases like Tonya when it can go horribly wrong, seeking those rings. I knew Weiber with her fab family would be fine, but I do wonder of someone who comes to London to use today's venue, 2012,and leaves empty handed, feeling like it was all for naught. Tai Babilonia is someone who truly was crushed and had a heck of a time for a couple decades when injury killed their dream. I was young but felt their pain/disappointment acutely. I can understand how tai tried everything to fix the pain.

I guess there will be many unknown stories from the metropolis of London, a boy from Jamaica maybe. As Sally Bowles sings in Cabaret, "Everybody loves a winner..." It would be nice if NBC stopped obsessing about the medals count and our dead heat with China and talked about number 4 with pride in some contests. I am sure I am missing these most poignant of stories. I hope some broadcasters are doing a good job of lauding those who worked as hard, but come up short.

One reason I am not a huge "Idol" fan is because of the cruelty of laughing at peope who cannot sing? I have never understood what is so funny about someone with hope, but no talent, and gutting them. Was America always such a heartless at times country? Being in an international forum, it is good to hear what other ccountries feel about the coverage, or what non US folk feel about the coverage in their countries. I doubt there is much in place for the "losers" when they get home to no parade, but there should be. We have lost services in my state that are so essential. so the "agony of sportsd defeat is not dealt with at all. Very ill folks cannot get therapists in severe depressive states. So I'm sure the bullying, other atletic losses, and teen occurences of every day life get ignored with all the huge cuts in life and death services. These Olympians are mosstly winners, and the fluffs are always triumph, but there's an ugly underside of loss, economic debts, etc etc. I found myself asking for the first time, do these games at their high cost, do the good theyvare intended to do? Its a lot of money for a poor country losing the educational money and big cuts to the vaunted NHS we saw touted!

I rambled here, but I guess I am saying that most will go home with some memories of wonderful young kids they met, so I hope that is sufficient. Between all the commercials, I just can't stay up late and watch the late night stories. I hope Bob Kostas and Mary Carillo are giving time and thought to all those whose name will never be known, as losing is' bad,' and not dealt with very well in America. I hope folks if they have a link to fluff that is about the almost winners will link the best human interest stories. Poor men's gym team. They must be feeling like a one way trip to the Tower. Gloty gone despite ones best effort from the heart. I find these stories the most real, most touching, even though I am very thrilled for the Fab 5 and M Phelps 19 medals, we hear not much of some of the special host athletes. I'd have loved to hear about the Bronze gym. team.individuals Those were gold medals to them, and lifted a nation. So few glorious endings, but many wonderfully human stories worth sharing. A thread idea?

 

[Olympia]

One very nice thing along these lines is that this morning on NBC, they had a special appearance from not just Danell Leyva and his coach/father but also John Orozco. The three all sat in a row and were each questioned by the reporter. It's easy to forget that a lot of these "failures" are in the spotlight because they were good enough to get on the team, and in the example of Orozco, he was good enough to be one of just two Americans to go to the All-Around.

One of the online news services point out that Olympians and other champion athletes are often not given preparation to deal with defeat. It certainly is a challenge to strength of character. I think some athletes take it as being part of the game. Of course it's a bit less crushing in sports that have a longer life span, so there's a realistic chance of coming to another Olympics (which I suspect will happen for Orozco). But all those sports psychologists we hear about should be reaching out to the American team and making sure they have the inner strength to deal with both defeat and victory.

 

[dorispulaski]

A two generation story of this sort played out here in CT. We are a small state, with no major sports teams, so having any Olympians is always thrilling. The local nightly news has been covering some of our competitors.

Margaux Farrell of Woodbridge, an NCAA standout swimmer for Indiana U, swam for France in the Olympics.
http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2012/07/20/sports/doc5008f87024a7c277401261.txt

While becoming an Olympian was a personal goal of Farrell, she says this isn’t just something she wanted to do for herself. She had her mother in mind, too. See, her mother, Sylvie Farrell, was a pretty talented swimmer as well. But she missed qualifying for the 1976 Olympic games by a hundredth of a second in the 100 backstroke.[For France]

“She always gets upset with me when I say that I wanted to make the team for her, because she wanted this to be something I do for myself,” Farrell said. “But it was something I did do for myself with the hope of giving back to her in the process.”

Last night she was part of a French relay team that won the bronze, and they interviewed her with her mother.

http://www.indystar.com/article/201...yssey=mod|newswell|text|Indianapolis Sports|s

It was a very happy story about both winning & losing.

Just making the team was key for Farrell; getting a medal was the icing on the cake.

 

[Olympia]

What a splendid story!

I know what you mean about identifying with athletes from your state. I live in a northeastern city, and we don't get a huge bunch of Olympians coming from here. They mostly seem to be from either California, Colorado, or the Midwest. So when there's an athlete from around these parts, it's a thrill.

But that story about the Farrells is particularly heartwarming. (A hundredth of a point! Sheesh.) It's interesting to see what a swimming power France is becoming, by the way. Much as I love Phelps, Lochte, Franklin, and our other swimmers, I do like seeing the medals spread around a bit.