Friday Musings 2-14-14 - Extension Educators alot like Olympians

Extension Educators are a lot like Olympians

Jeremy Abbott, U.S. figure skating champ, falls hard but finishes routine to huge ovation

Wow - that fall looked painful. As Extension Educators, if we are doing our job, we "put ourselves our there" and try difficult things, we stretch ourselves and sometimes we might fall (like the webinar goes down, the new community partner does not show up). But, even when we fall we get back up. We are persistent. 

 

Two tie for gold medal

"Olympic history was made early Wednesday morning when two athletes tied for first place in the women’s downhill skiing finals at the Sochi, Russia, games. Dominique Gisin of Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia each completed their runs with a time of 1 minute and 41.57 seconds, making them the first to ever tie for a gold medal in an Olympic Alpine skiing event. Technically, there was an actual winner for the race. But with the standard practice of rounding to the hundredths of a second instead of to the 10,000th, Gisin and Maze’s times ended up identical. For the two skiers, though, sharing the gold is something to be proud of."

As Extension Educators, we celebrate each other's wins and even help our fellow educator to be a winner. When one wins, we all win.

Russian skier breaks ski, helped by Canadian coach to finish

 

A Canadian columnist writes, "Justin Wadsworth knew Anton Gafarov, or at least, knew who he was. He had seen him around cross-country skiing World Cups, at various competitions, knew he was Russian, a pretty good sprinter. Nothing more, though. They had never spoken. So Wadsworth, a coach with the Canadian cross-country team, knew it was Anton Gafarov he was watching thrash helplessly, one ski mangled and twisted and breaking apart. On Tuesday, in a men’s sprint qualifier, Gafarov had fallen and his ski had snapped. He rose to his feet and pulled himself up a hill, slowly and awkwardly, with his arms and his poles. The rest of the blade split on the downhill, and he fell again. He was racing in the Olympics, on home soil. He got up again. Wadsworth was holding a ski for his own guy, Alex Harvey, but Canada’s skiers were already out. He was a couple deep snowbanks above Gafarov. There were Russian coaches around, but none of them had skis. Gafarov was flailing away, a wounded bird. Justin Wadsworth scrambled over a snowbank.
“I really felt like, at that point, in front of his home crowd — and he was a guy that I think the Russians pinned some hope on today, because he was quite a good sprinter — I just wanted him to finish the race in front of his home crowd, with dignity,” said Wadsworth. “Not having to hobble across the line on one ski.”

As Extension Educators we are compassionate with both our participants and our colleagues. Sportsmanship abounds.

Hard Work Leads to Success - Watch Ted Ligety this Weekend

Ted Ligety's mom even said he was not a natural athlete. Hard work, setting goals, and supportive
parents have contributed to Ted being an Olympic athlete. When Ted didn't have a sponsor he taped :MOM & DAD" to his helmet to acknowledge their sacrifices. When you watch the video - you will have a new appreciation for wheelbarrows and hard work.

A successful educator works hard. In a training I was in Thursday for "newer" educators, my Program Leader colleague said, "implementation is NOT enough - we design, develop, and evaluate." While it takes hard work.... that doesn't mean it can't be fun!


Just musing while watching the Olympics.
Have a nice weekend,
Trish