Trevor Marsicano held the world record for 20 minutes in the 1,000-meter speed skating race in March 2009. Then his record of 1:06:8 was broken by his teammate, Shani Davis, who was only four-tenths of a second faster. But just a week later Marsicano turned the tables and defeated Davis for the gold medal at … Read more

I was highly involved in sports from a young age — from baseball with the guys and Tae Kwan Do, to ballet and swimming. Although my mother is a four-time Olympian in the sport of speed skating, she never once pressured or forced me into following in her footsteps. I would try speed skating here … Read more

It was December 30, 2009, the last chance for anyone to make the 1000m team. The last spot of the Olympic team was to be selected from the fastest time skated. Before my race that day I prayed Psalm 31: “My times are in Thy hands…” Little did I know the entire psalm was a … Read more

Many athletes can spend an entire career developing their ability to “see” the game. Not only their ability to see and know where everyone is, but anticipate what is going to happen. At the highest levels of sport, athletes need to see and calculate these things in the blink of an eye. Tara Smart has … Read more

Steph Cook went to the Sydney Olympics as a doctor who had become good at her hobby, wanting to see how far she could go. She went to enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime experience, and never guessed what effect it would have on her life afterwards. As a medical student at Oxford she had a go at … Read more

Going to the Olympics is a dream come true — something I had been working toward for a long time. Having it finally come to fruition is exciting. My father was a three-time Olympian who retired from competing to start a training program for juniors. My little sister and I were just the right age to begin … Read more

Everyone has something they are passionate about. For me, it has always been sports. I can remember even at a very young age loving to compete, and when I was introduced to the game of volleyball in seventh grade, I was hooked. Yet as great as this passion was, I became even more passionate about … Read more

My last couple years in high school I thought I was a pretty good shooter (captain of the Junior All-America team and Team USA in 2002). However, in big tournaments my performances were not very good. As captain, in 2002 I was the reason why the junior team didn’t win gold. The following year my … Read more

It was a long road to get to where I am today in the NBA. As a rookie, I didn’t play that much; I wasn’t really in the rotation at all. I came from college, where I was playing a lot of minutes, to not playing at all as a rookie in the NBA. I … Read more

Not many people go to the Olympics once, but this is my second time to go to the Olympics and I’ve gotten a second chance to win another gold medal. In training for 2006, I was this fiery, really competitive guy from Texas and I was out to dominate the world. I felt like everyone … Read more