Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 2

Hey folks!

Today I'll continue my little series on memories I had with the Young Ambassadors, based on our presentations on the cube. I started out with Elise last week and talked about the secret of becoming a champion. Today I wanted to write about a memory with the next one in line, which happens to be...me! Well, that's tricky. Call me self-absorbed, but I'm still going to write a little about myself since I happen to have some memories involving me as well. Besides, yesterday was my birthday, which for me is always a time of reflection (and of course partying), so that might fit rather well.

When I went to Singapore, I thought I had seen quite a bit in life. I've lived and worked in six countries so far, was a master student and had more than 10 years experience as an athlete (retrospectively comparing this to the other ambassadors, I should have known way better, but bear with me!). Don't get me wrong: I knew that Singapore would be another great experience, however, I far underestimated its impact on me. I don't really know how to describe it, so I'll quote by memory from a novel I really like (The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke - that's right, THAT Ethan Hawke!):

"I can't describe it. It's just that I feel that I must have done something right in life, since it has led me to this very moment."

On the last day in Singapore, I was chosen to say a few words of thank you to some people. I was really nervous before, being given the fact that I had to give a speech for some hundred people in two languages I'm not a native in. Shortly before it was time, I talked to Gan Su-Lin, who gave an excellent presentation on cultural differences (check out Erin's latest blog on that!!). We were talking and she gave me some encouragement. Before I left to deliver my speech, I thanked her and said: "You know, I'm just a little insecure, because I'm still in development." She just smiled at me and replied: "We all are!"

I know I'm using this phrase quite a bit, but yeah: This is what it's all about! We are all in a constant state of flux (if you know from which song this quote comes, I owe you an ice kachang :)). However, since we are all in the same boat, there will always be somebody to assist us in our development. And just as I had the great help of Gan Su-Lin, I'll try to help the young athletes in Singapore with their development as well. So if you are an athlete going to Singapore, just look for the nice Austrian with the funny poses ;)

Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 1

Hey folks!

Seems like my birthday came several days early, since not only the Cube went live, but also starting today, the 30 outstanding Young Ambassadors will be presented individually. I'd like to take those individual presentations to write about some of the countless memories I had with the Young Ambassadors in Singapore. Some of them contain valuable life lessons, others are just too funny to be left out and there will be also stuff that might not be too interesting for the general public, but that is definitely important to me.

The first one to be presented is Elise Rechichi, the ambassador of Australia and one of the three Olympic medalists on the team. I first met Elise at the Island Adventure during lunch, shortly after my near-death experience with a durian. We talked a bit about sport and also that she knew two sailors from Austria (that I only knew from the news) and that she had been competing in Austria as well.

I don't really recall if it was during this initial conversation or maybe later, but there was this one sentence I will always remember from her. First, you might need to know that Olympic champions - actually champions in general - always had a tremendous fascination to me. I just wanted to know what you need to do in life to become that successful -and hence apply it to be as successful as them. Since Elise is one of the few Olympic gold medalists I came at close enough range to ask, I of course took my chance. What she said was as simple as it was astonishing:

"Probably the most important thing is that you have to know how to win."

That might sound confusing at first, but let me explain: If you thought that it's hard work, dedication, will power and so on and so forth that makes for a champion, you are of course right as well. However, what Elise pointed out back then was that if you want to be a winner, you have to know how to win, that is to know that you are capable of winning.

Social psychology has it that we usually compare ourselves to others. One the one hand, this is very important, because you thus get some guidelines. However, on the other hand, it can also lead to the point that you lose a feeling for your own capabilities. An example: You are a weight lifter and every other competitor so far has failed at 100kg. If you want to be a true champion, you have to know that it doesn't matter what the others did or did not. The only thing that matters is that you know that you can do it and hence go out there to win.

I also struggled with that problem for quite some time. Although I always got good grades in school and college as well, I was completely nervous before all the exams. It was a long, long learning process that took me to the point where I could just say: I studied for this, I know that I am well prepared, I will know the answer and thus succeed with this test. And that's what it comes down to: No matter if you are an athlete, a student, an artist or anything else: All you need to do is to know that you can win. Elise's ambition for example is to enroll medicine in Australia. She has shown that she knows how to win in sports - and I am thus fully convinced that she will also succeed with her career ambition.

So that was my favorite moment with Elise. Since she is not only a champion in her sport, but also when it comes to partying, there are plenty of other great moments. However, I believe that there are more appropriate places to share those than this blog ;).

The Cube

Hey folks!

This time, I'll only drop you a quick note, because in 20 minutes I am off to give a handball practice at a local elementary school. For all of you out there: There is nothing more satisfying than being a coach of the sport you love. It's probably the most rewarding experience out there!

What I wanted to share with you is that having started yesterday, you can actually see who is participating at the Youth Olympic Games in August! The profiles of the 30 Young Ambassadors as well as those of the Young Reporters and of course the athletes will be up on the Cube, which is the virtual YOG platform on the Olympic homepage. So starting now, you can look up all the people that are contributing to the YOG 2010: The Young Ambassadors promoting them, the Young Reporters spreading out the latest news from Singapour and most importantly, the athletes!

Apart from just browsing through the guys and learning more about their unique backgrounds, you can also filter them. For example, if you are a swimmer and you want to get in touch with other swimmers from around the world, you just filter out all the swimming athletes and there you go. On their profiles, you will also find links to the most popular social media sites, so you can stay in touch via Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and the like.
You can also select people by country. So if you are from the United States and you always wanted to know how people in Austria are doing, just see who from Austria is going to be there in Singapore and get in touch with them.

I think the Cube is a very funny and also informative tool. When I was told that it had gone online, I looked up my fellow ambassadors and learned new things about them. So, go to the Olympic website and check out the Cube - there are from now on plenty of amazing people on it!

Barefoot

Hey folks!

Coincidence is a funny little thing since it's uncontrollable, yet usually leads to really cool stuff. Yesterday, I wrote about "I can" - the power of belief and that you can reach everything you want to. I also mentioned the examples of Michael Phelps and Thomas Geierspichler as an example for the countless great role models that are out there. Funny enough, I very closely experienced an example of what you can actually do when you just believe in yourself. I'm afraid it can't live up to Michael or Thomas in terms of excellence and impact, however, I promise you that it's a story you probably haven't heard yet. And although it just sounds stupid and hilarious, I think that there are some true thoughts attached to it.

After finishing my blog yesterday night, I went out - a thing that became rather rare in recent times. Since I got today off, I stayed out a little longer and had a fabulous time. The only problem was that my shoes are a little to big and I started getting blisters from them (Yes ladies, men also have such problems. At least I do ;)). It was 3AM, I was in good spirits and I actually didn't want to go home yet...so I just took them off and continued dancing. That went on for another hour or so before it really was time to kick it and go home.

Ever since I retired as an active athlete, I kinda feel uneasy if I don't get enough exercise. Yesterday night must have been a particular strong night, because even after hours of dancing and jumping around, I still felt the need to move my feet a bit. Of course, I couldn't put my shoes back on, because then my feet would hurt even more. So I started to walk down the deserted street, without my shoes, and just waited for things to change. Of course they didn't, so I started to think: "How far can I go without my shoes on, before my feet hurt too badly and I have to give up?" It was just a silly little bet with myself, however, I was really curious how much will power I could bring up at 4AM.

I don't want to pose as a tragic hero (After all it was my stupid idea), but believe me when I say: The walk was unpleasant! It was cold, I was tired and the concrete and the gravel weren't too comfortable a ground to walk on. Yet I kept going. And going. And going. To cut a long walk short: I ended up going the entire distance, a total of 5km, from the club to my home. Barefoot at 4 AM. Of course I could have taken a cab and just take the easy way. But I had asked myself the question: "How long until you give up". And that was enough motivation to keep me going, since giving up just sounds like an insult to me.

Of course this story is somewhere between utterly and completely stupid and in case you haven't guessed yet: The reason I was walking was that I definitely was not allowed to drive a car anymore (nuff said).
However, I'd like to make the point that it still shows something. It shows that if you refuse to give up and just keep on going, you will finally succeed and reach your goal (in my case my bed and some rest for my feet). And if you continue the dedication you show in small things in life (i.e. bets with yourself) in every other domain, you will eventually succeed with bigger tasks than walking home barefoot at 4AM.

I can

Hey folks!

First of all, please accept my apologies that I cruelly neglected this blog for a while. It's just that classes started again and I had some other stuff to attend to. However, I promise that I will keep more discipline with updating this blog in the future. As it is still 119 long days to go, I am pretty sure that I'll find the time for another article.

Today, my fellow ambassador and dear friend Fergus shared an incredible video for the Singapore 2010 YOG with us. I embedded it at the end of this article so you have instant access to it and see how awesome it is. Apart from being a very fine piece of artwork (being a student of advertising, I really appreciate such stuff ;)), it really succeeds in telling what the YOG are about in a mere 60 seconds.

Through my different activities, I have the chance and privilege to meet with a lot of people. A thing I like to ask people I just met is what their dreams and visions in life are. It's a very simple question, yet there are so many different answers to it - ranging from "I want to be an Olympic Champion" to "I want to graduate from college". However, after telling me about their dreams, most people start saying stuff like "...but that's never gonna work out" or "Unfortunately, it will always remain a dream". And that really disappoints me. At this time, I always quote Henry Ford, who said:

"Far more people give up rather than they fail"

Social psychology has a theory calling this behavior self-handicapping - the process of giving a reason for failure before you even took up a task or challenge. And that's exactly why I think this is so sad: Because normally the only person preventing you from succeeding is yourself!

So I think it's another great initiative to actively tell the YOG athletes at a young age: You can! You might can't do other fancy things yet like driving a car, going to a club or getting a tattoo (which are not much of a deal anyways!) - but there are millions of things you can do. For instance: Do you think that Michael Phelps only discovered the day before the Olympics in Athens started that he can swim? Probably not. He rather knew that he can swim like a fish in a pool and that nobody will care how old he is. A couple of days ago, I also wrote about Thomas Geierspichler and told his incredible story. Those two are just one of the thousands of examples of what people can reach, when they believe in themselves.

Of course I know what it feels like to be a teenager and thinking of all the cool things there are in this world, but that you have to be at least 30, hold an MBA and tons of live experience to do those things. But that's so not true! All it takes is a big heart and the ambition to go out there and live your dreams. Because it doesn't matter how old you are, what sex you are, where you come from or what others think of you. All that matters is that you stand tall and let the world know: I can!

The culture in sports

Hey folks!

The last two days, I went to Tyrol where I earned my bachelor degree from 2006 to 2009. I gave a short presentation to the students of the "Sports, Culture and Event Management" program, which I am an alumni of. When I was applying for admission in mid-2006, I thought that this course of studies was just a perfect way for me to combine my interests in sports (I was still an active athlete then) and culture (I was a journalist for a youth culture/music magazine). I hope now it becomes clearer, why I am so happy to be a Young Ambassador. After all, the YOG are a picture perfect match of how to apply my curriculum in the real world.

To give you a better impression of what I studied (a task I am still busy doing when talking to my (grand) parents)), I'll just give you a short overview of the program. Since I earned a BA in Business, I spent the first two semesters with law, business administration, HR management and accounting (God, how I hated those accounting records - if you don't know what that is, neither do I!). Later on, we also started out with sport and cultural sciences as well as sports and culture management. In the third year, it was time to gain some practical experience and get to see the world. So first of all, I did an exchange semester in Paris, before doing a 6 months internship in New York.

As I mentioned in the introduction, for me the YOG are a great way to apply my knowledge into practice. Because one of the most important things I learned during my studies was that sports, culture and events are not three isolated pillars, but rather three components of one big whole. Let's take the YOG as an example: I guess I don't have to bother to explain where sports and event part comes in here - being given the fact that's one hell of a sport event. However, in addition, we have this great Culture and Education program, where the athletes are taught skills an values that will definitely come in handily on their way to becoming champions.

But even if you take the traditional Olympics (do the YOG a favor and justice by not refering to them as 'real Olympics', since the YOG are very real as well!) that unfortunately don't have a CEP yet, you'll discover that there is plenty of culture in there. If you think about the Olympics and take what comes to your mind: The five rings, the torch relay, the opening ceremony etc.. Those are all symbols and rituals that have grown over decades and sometimes even centuries.

Now with the YOG, we face the formidable task of being part of an organization as powerful and established as the Olympic Movement, yet with the challenge of forming something new. So we - the IOC, the SYOGOC, the Young Ambassadors and mainly the youngsters worldwide - have to think about a way to take the underlying message of Olympism and transform them to be used with new instruments and media. This is of course a very exciting task, since we are all part of something really big and unique. And even tough sports and culture tend to be seen as two opposites, they actually share the same roots.

Some thoughts on digital media

As I am writing these lines, I am slowly, but steadily moving home towards the east. I am on a train, enjoying one of the biggest miracles there is in life: Mobile internet! Being a little bit old school, I don’t even take such things as wireless internet in public places for granted. I tend to think of the Internet as a luxury good not always available (which of course it still is in many parts of the world) – so just sitting on a train, plugging in a small stick and enjoying the mercy of instant messaging, surfing and of course blogging, is nearly too good to be true for me.

“Oh no, another random rambling that has nothing to do with the Olympics”, you might exclaim. Au contraire, mes chers (Too bad I can’t throw around more of these French terms). Because with the great Culture and Education Program (CEP) the young athletes will experience in Singapore, one of the five pillars is digital media. In a wide array of workshops, hands-on experience and discussions, the youngsters will learn more about using digital media, sharing ideas, visions and data, but also avoiding risks and threats.

I believe that this is really a very good initiative since it is at the cutting edge of our modern life. After all, it is nearly certain that the use of digital media will increase even more in the near future. So for the teens of today, fluency in digital media will be a non-negotiable requirement. I mean, it indeed has many benefits. For instance, time and distances became only a minor issue when dealing with the internet. I can sit in my room in St. Poelten, Austria, having a conversation going on with one of my new friends – Elise from Australia, Erin from the US, Shannon from Papua Newguinea, Jed from Singapore – and it will happen in real time, although they are thousands of miles away.

Also for the athletes, the use of the different social media platforms will be crucial, not only for their personal life, but also for their career. In the near future, after growing out of the YOG and into the traditional Olympics, our youngsters will have a considerable amount of fans, appreciating their excellence with friendship and respect. So what better way is there than using digital media to give something back to your fans? A nice picture, some words of thank you or even a tiny video – all those things are easily done (when you know how to do them!) and can have a great impact.

Of course there are thousands of examples of how you can benefit from digital media (It goes without saying that there are also plenty of risks, which I promise I will address in the future!). However, I guess the underlying message is that by using digital media, our youngsters have a possibility to make themselves heard. And with the CEP just about to start, I think it is our duty and privilege to provide them the tools to make their voices heard!