Grit in the Olympics (#147)
The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad are winding down in Tokyo, Japan. Originally scheduled to take place from July 24 to August 9, 2020, the event was postponed in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being held in 2021, the event retained the Tokyo 2020 brandname. This was the first time that the Olympic Games have been postponed and rescheduled, rather than cancelled. I know I enjoyed watching the swimming, gymnastics, track and field, and cycling events over the last several weeks.
Grittiest Athlete
As the games wrap up, I’l like to declare the grittiest athlete of the XXXII Olympic Games. I define grit as the will to persevere to achieve long term goals. A person’s grit is built upon six components: a purpose, a goal, perseverance, resilience, courage to deal with the fear of failure, and motivation. Of course, every athlete comes to the Olympics with the goal of earning a gold medal. But, few actually realize the goal. It takes grit to get to the podium.
From my vantage point, the grittiest athlete of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is Austrian Anna Kiesenhofer who won the women’s cycling road race. Kiesenhofer is one of the most unlikely Olympic champion stories ever — she has a Master's degree in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge in England and a PhD in applied mathematics from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. On the bike, she last raced professionally for Team Lotto Sudol in 2017 and doesn’t train with a coach. Yet, she has been the Austrian time trial champion in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and the Austrian road race champion in 2019.
Anna Kiesenhofer during the Olympic Road Race
The Dutch women’s team (Annemiek van Vleuten (eventual silver medal winner), Marianne Vos (finished 4th), Anna van der Breggen (finished 15th), and Demi Vollering) was heavily favored to win the road race. It was a tough course — the 2020 women’s road race was 84 miles with 7,553 feet of climbing. As soon as the peloton was released Anna Kiesenhofer, as well as Omer Shapira of Israel and Anna Plichta of Poland launched an attack. The three worked exceptionally well together and eventually built an 11 minute lead over the peloton. With about 24 miles of cycling to go, Kiesenhofer attacked on the climb up the Kagosaka Pass. She dropped Shapira and Plichta and held off the peloton for the win by over 1:15.
Of all the grit attributes, Kiesenhofer’s perseverance, or persistence in doing something difficult, stands out. Anna knew she couldn’t race a typical race and beat the powerful Dutch team. So, she attacked from the start and built an ad hoc team to help her. Together the three riders worked together to forge a huge lead as they overcame tough climbs, fast descents, and powerful flats. When it came time to go it alone, she had the perseverance to hold off the fastest women in the world all the way to the finish line. As she said in a post race interview, “I like to be independent. I like to make my choices like my training plan, my races and so on. I have just this lonely fighter approach.” She also said she hopes her story can inspire others to “not to give up, to persevere.”
If you’d like to learn more ideas about how to develop your grit, my book Grow Your Grit: Overcome Obstacles, Thrive, and Accomplish Your Goals is available to order via Amazon here. If you read it and like it, I’d appreciate a review on Amazon as well. If you want a signed copy send me an email.
Conclusion
Use the efforts of Anna Kiesenhofer to inspire you to go on the offensive in 2021 and grow your grit.