» The Power of Love – Olympic Gold for Deceased Wife

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Aug 2008

The Power of Love – Olympic Gold for Deceased Wife

Jonathon

Matthias Steiner failed to lift 243 kb. His main competitors succeeded, so when he tried again he had to increase it to 244 kg, which matched his personal best ever. He succeeded at 244, but as the competition continued, he was forced to try 258 kg (568.8 pounds). On July 16 2007 his wife died in a car accident. He, an Austrian until then, promised her he would win a gold for her country, Germany. He did.

Combining this “clean and jerk” lift with the snatch lift, he heaved a total of 461 kilograms (1016.3 pounds) to win the men’s super heavyweight gold.

The video is exhilarating – his euphoria is ecstatic, but it’s not available on the internet – see details at the bottom of this post.

You can imagine her spirit is lifting with him. When Canadians finally started winning medals, other Canadian athletes said that that inspiration gave them an extra boost. How can heart make that difference? I wonder to what degree mysticism, spirituality, magic and quantum theory are used by Olympic athletes. Usain Bolt does a ritual gesture that appears to be a prayer to God. Perhaps faith can move mountains.

On a less romantic note, in the finale of So You Think You Can Dance, liquid-popper breakdancer Philip Chbeeb was understandably called an alien. What’s his secret? Drugs? Or, less prejudicially, God?

I once was super-human, immune to all that plagued others – I had a heaping helping of bad luck, but I used all problems as playthings. … … … Then the Matrix mummified me. It’s hard to win when you always lose.

I’m telling myself this straitjacket is just a cocoon, a stepping stone to greater things. So begins my quest to keep the faith.

YouTube has an agreement with the International Olympic Committee to not let any videos be shown except on the IOC’s own YouTube channel, which is blocked in countries which have a licensing agreement, such as Canada, where the CBC paid for the broadcast rights. The video is on the CBC site, but only in the 10.5 minute version, which is far longer than necessary, and it can’t even be downloaded by fancy video-download software, so I can’t include it in my Caregiving Channel playlist for Mom (who has Alzheimer’s). (Tech note: I expect it can be captured using screen-capture software, but I don’t know of free or cheap screen-capture software that also captures audio, except CamStudio, but that captures the audio that comes out of the speakers in through the microphone, so it loses some quality.)

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