Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 9

Ciao ragazzi e ragazze!

Oggi, vorrei racontare la mia memoria della carinissima Fabrizia D'Ottavio, ambasciatrice d'Italia. Perché parlo l'Italiano ancora proprio male, I will continue writing in English. Fabrizia is one of the three Olympic medalists on the team, having won a silver medal in rhythmic gymnastiscs in the 2004 Games in Athens. The thing I remember with Fabrizia is a funny little language issue we had during the seminar.

On our first night at the convention center, we went for a little evening walk to have a cup of coffee. On our way, Fabrizia introduced herself and told me she was the Young Ambassador of Italy. Being given the fact that my sister has been living in Italy for over two years now and that I am in general a huge fan of Italy, I tried talking Italian to her. First, I asked her where in Italy she came from ("Di dove sei"?). She replied, in English, that she was from Chieti, a small town in the Abruzzi. Being a little insecure because she had answered in English, I continued, telling her about my personal bounding with Italy ("Mia sorella habita a Roma, ci sta lavorando.") Again, Fabrizia replied, in English, that she knew Rome quite well and that it was a beautiful city.

Of course, my spirit was broken by then and for the rest of the week, we'd speak English to each other, having a lot of fun with the rest of the gang. Time went by and the week was over way to soon. On Thursday evening, I was waiting with Mediha and Sofia for our airport shuttle, since we all departed at the same time. Fabrizia took a later flight and came down to tell us goodbye. So we were standing in the lobby, saying goodbye to each other and everybody was quite sad to leave.

At this point you must know that one of my bad habits is that I swear quite a lot. Not to upset anybody, I usually try to swear in a language nobody in the room speaks or understands. Somehow the fact that Fabrizia was standing right next to me must have slipped my mind, because I was exclaiming a grumpy:

"Che palle!!!"

which is a rather direct way of saying "This sucks" in Italian. Fabrizia was looking at me and started laughing and, to my great surprise, sent a wave of Italian words my way. Alas, the first time I succeeded talking Italian to her was approximately five minutes before I left for the airport. Better late than never I guess.

So the conclusion I drew for myself was that next time I want to talk to somebody in his/her native language, I'll just throw in some curse words to break the ice. I just hope they will take it was humorously and relaxed as Fabrizia did.

PS: I can't even begin to imagine the pain Fabrizia's funny move at the end of her video would cause me...

Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 8

Hey folks!

The following memory has, in short, already been written about Mrs. Sherry Tsai from Hong Kong. However, on the occasion of her being presented on the Olympic homepage, I will repeat it, since I think it's kinda funny.

When we arrived in Singapore, there were 30 Young Ambassadors and 60 local CEP champs gathering for an amazing week. So at the beginning, it was time to get to know each other. As you can imagine, this is quite a procedure when you have to introduce yourself to 89 people you have never met before. In this big introduction chaos, I somehow managed to not meet Sherry, which is why we only had our first proper conversation three days into the seminar.

You also must know that during the seminar, the usual third question (after "What's your name?" and "Where do you come from?") was: "Are you an athlete as well?". The same was true with Sherry and me. Just see how our dialogue went from there:

Florian: "So, are you an athlete as well?"
Sherry: "I used to be, I just retired from swimming."
Florian: "Cool. So were you a competitive swimmer?"
Sherry: "Yeah, kind of."
Florian: "Cool. Did you compete...like on a national level."
Sherry: "Well, yeah." PAUSE "Three Olympics..."

Maybe being written down it's not as funny as it was in real life, however, I still have to smile when thinking back of it. Call me weird, but learning that the, on the outside inconspicuous, person you are talking to is actually a former world-class athlete gives an interesting shift to some conversations. Anyways, coming back to Sherry: After ending her career this year, she is now going for her master degree in sport sciences, Beside, she is also working as a TV presenter, hosting a sports TV show and is a part-time swimming coach. Not to mention her being the Young Ambassador of Hong Kong. So if you are an athlete and you question yourself how you can start a successful second career once you retire from active sport, ask Sherry - she definitely knows how it is done!

Pursue your dreams, but....

Hey folks!

I'd like to apologize in advance that today's blog entry won't be on the light side. However, I think life consists of happy as well as of unhappy parts, one of them I'd like to write about today.

On Friday night, an Austrian striker, playing for Swansea in the UK, named Besian Idrizaj died of a heart attack. He was 22 years old. Of course this came as a big shock, however, soon his obituary reminded me of his case. In his career, Besian has collapsed twice on the field at matches; both times doctors blamed his weak heart. In the media, the former chief of medicine of his club in Linz, Milan Toljan, was quoted that Besian suffered from cor pulmonale - a disease causing too much pressure damaging the heart.

When Besian was 17 years old, he transferred from a mediocre Austrian club to Liverpool FC, back then the incumbent Champions League winner. I remember it being a big deal and all over Austrian media - a young, talented boy being signed by mighty FC Liverpool. Back then, he commented on his transfer:

"You can't ignore an invitation by the Champions League winner. I would have swum the channel to go there."

Unfortunately, things didn't work out for him in Liverpool he left the club, first on a loan to Luton Town, later back home to Austria.

Upon arriving in Austria, his career was harshly interrupted after he collapsed in a match. He was out for pretty much all of the season and only gave his comeback one year after the incident. However, shortly afterward, he collapsed again during training with his new club in Upper Austria. This time, they discovered his serious heart disease. His doctors told him that with a condition like this, he must under no circumstances play professional football.

However, Besian didn't give up and signed with Swansea in the second highest British league. Last Friday, he died in his sleep while being on vacation in Austria. The Austrian Football Federations technical director, Willi Ruttensteiner, remembered:

"Besian just loved playing football; his biggest dream was joining a Premier League team in the UK."

The reason I am writing this is that people often ask what "being a mentor for athletes" as part of the Young Ambassador job description is all about. I'd say that on the one hand, it's our task to tell the youngsters out there to stick to their dreams and work hard to achieve them. However, incidents like this one remind me of the other side: That once you reach a point where you risk severe damage to your integrity or your health, you should accept your limits. Sport is arguably the most fulfilling experience there is in life; however, it is definitely not worth risking your life for. Sadly to say, Besian underestimated this risk and had to pay the highest price. He tried living his dream and payed with his life for it.

Inspiration

Hey folks!

Today, I am really lazy with this blog. However, this is not due to the fact that I'm too lazy to write (well, maybe a little bit), but because no matter what I'll write, it will not be nearly as good and inspirational as what Erin has written in her blog.

In a nutshell: Last week, Erin has participated in and completed her first marathon. This fact alone brings her a lot of respect. However, now we can see the aftermath of her achievement: Some 4600 miles away, George Julian in Cardiff, UK follows Erin on Twitter and reads her blog. The two have never met, however, Erin's story was so inspirational that George decided to sign up for her first half-marathon in Cardiff this October.

Please do yourself a favor and go to Erin's blog for the full story (just klick on "Erin's blog" or find the link in the blog roll on the right or type "kennedyerin.blogspot.com" into your address bar). I promise, you won't regret it!

Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 7

Hey folks!

Today's story is a little bit different from the other ones, because my first memory with Fergus actually happened before Singapore. After this story, you will understand a little better why Ferg, nickname "William Wallace" (© Devon & Callum), is so telegenic: It's just his vast video experience he can draw from.

In addition to our public Young Ambassador group, we also have a private one to exchange ideas, discuss different issues and just share the latest chat and news. When we were appointed Young Ambassadors, the IOC team sent out a PDF with the link to a Facebook group in it, kindly asking us to join the gang. I was recommended by my NOC rather early, which is I guess why I was among the first to be contacted by the IOC and thus joined the group.

At first, only few ambassadors had joined and everybody was a little shy (Which you wouldn't guess in a million years once you saw us walking down Orchard Street as a group). Things changed drastically when Serge from Rwanda joined and started posting on the group's wall. Among other things, he wanted to encourage people to join by stating:

"The last ambassador to join this group owes us 30 push-ups!"

He was of course only joking and after some funny comments on his post, we went back to usual. Time went by and after some weeks, nearly every ambassador had joined - except for Fergus that is. To his credit, I have to say at this point that it was not his fault, but rather due to the fact that he was only informed by his NOC a week or so before the seminar in Singapore started. Anyways, being a true British gentleman, Ferg introduced himself upon joining the group. Back then, I remember Serge's comment and said to Fergus:

"Welcome aboard Fergus! As my dear colleague Serge will agree, you owe us 30 push-ups!"

Again, I was only teasing him, but little did I know that Ferg was a real trooper. When I turned the PC back home that night, a video was waiting for me. It showed Fergus, down on the floor, doing 30 push-ups! (Unfortunately, he has removed the video since, however, you can see here what Fergus doing push-ups looks like)

From that moment on, I knew that Fergus definitely had YOG DNA. Because in life, people often challenge you in jest, because they know that you won't yield to their challenge anyway. So the best thing you can do is accept the challenge and show them what you have got. Because if you are willing to take challenges that don't matter, you are well prepared for the moment they do!

Interview w/ Cassidy Quinn Brettler

Hey folks!

About a week ago, I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Cassidy Quinn Brettler, a promising young journalist from Seattle, WA. We talked a lot about the Youth Olympic Games, sports and life in general. I think we really had a great conversation and it was definitely a lot of fun talking to her. However, just see for yourself!

Part 1



Part 2

Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 6

Hey folks!

Another tale from the Diplomatic Corps, this time about my Singapore room mate Callum from Canada. Just like in his video interview, Callum is as energetic and dynamic in real life, maybe a direct result from being a competitive swimmer for a long time. However, having studied philosophy, Callum is never lost for some incredible wisdom and there is one piece that stuck to my mind which I would like to share with you.

As I mentioned above, Callum and I shared a room during the CEP seminar in Singapore. We arrived on Wednesday, the same day the big Welcome Dinner was to take place at our hotel. We moved in at 6pm and dinner would start at 8pm. Still, Callum and I decided to head over to the food court for a quick snack. You see, the great thing about posh dinners is that you have plenty of delicious food waiting for you. The bad thing is that it is literally waiting for you, since there is plenty of speeches to be made before you can tuck in.

On our way down, I asked Callum about his job as a sports marketeer, since it is a career I'm aspiring myself. I was mainly curious about how being self-employed is working out for him, because I always thought that you have to be really brave to found your own company. After all, if things don't work out, you have to go out of business and might have to pay debts until the day you die. However, Callum was very relaxed and said the following, which impressed me quite a bit:

"You know, it's actually no big deal. Basically, all you do is your due diligence and if the result is ok, you are good to go."

Once again, this does not only apply to the world of business. I think that no matter if you are a business man, an athlete, a student or whatever: It basically comes down to doing your due diligence: Is there a market for my business? Did I prepare well for this competition? Did I study for this exam? If the answer is "yes", then you should stop worrying and focus all your attention on your task. Callum did his due diligence and is now as successful as a business man as he was as a swimmer.

Apart from that he has also got some fine dancing moves (like he showed in his video), however, I am not too sure if due diligence is also responsible for those ;).