I love stories like this. To me it proves there is an
American drive. I found it ironic that when I was reading this that the
illegal immigration issue came to the forefront again. Henry’s mother and father were illegal immigrants. His father
abandoned the family when he was five years old. His mother eventually got a
green card through one of the amnesty programs. To say that this guy overcame
every disadvantage possible to become an Olympic Gold Medalist does not begin
to describe it. Not a particularly great book, but certainly an inspiring
story. Certainly underscores a message that has driven me - Have a dream and pursue that dream, do not let anything or anybody stand in your
way.
Some quotes
from the book:
"To
be the best, you've got to best the best, so why not start right now?"
When learning that he was to face the 2006 World Champion in his first Olympic
match.
What his
coach at the USOTC, Terry Brand, told him that inspired his post work-out
routines that some times lasted an hour! "You've go to do something that
nobody else in the world is doing," he told me then. "And you've go
to do it everyday."
Practice
pays off, his comment on using the high crotch take down, the move that won him
the gold medal. "The perfect high crotch take down. The approximately one
millionth high crotch- crotch take down. It is a move I had been doing
hundreds of times a week for four years in practice. I could do it in my sleep.
Now I just did it in my dream."
On the
gold medal "Five Ounces. A dozen years of sweat for five ounces."