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This The USA can boast the most Olympic medals thanks to the impressive performances of the best athletes. Swimmer Michael Phelpswho competed in five Olympic Games, from Sydney in 2000 to Rio in 2016, is the most decorated Olympian in history, with 28 medals, Simone Biles is the most decorated female gymnast in U.S. history, winning an “unprecedented” 4 gold medals in the freestyle, vault, all-around and team competitions at the Rio Olympics.
The Paris 2024 Olympics are underway, and while Phelps is retired — passing the proverbial torch to Katie Ledecky, who could leave the City of Light as the most decorated Olympic swimmer of all time — Biles is competing again, 4 years after she withdrew from the Tokyo Games and began an essential dialogue about athletes’ mental health.
Photo credit: Tom Weller/VOIGT | Getty Images
For years, we’ve celebrated these athletes for their inspiring physical and mental triumphs, but there’s one other story that must also grab your attention. And in practice, it’s a story that’s especially relevant to your every day challenges and victories at work. It’s a story of innovation.
Olympians, innovation, and you…really? Of course. Without innovation, Biles wouldn’t be doing moves that no other athlete, male or female, could even consider. Phelps wouldn’t be leaving Rio with a career-best twenty third gold medal, and Ledecky wouldn’t be breaking one other record in the sport.
Even if your personal athletic profession involves nothing more strenuous than watching the better of the best compete live in Paris this summer from your front room couch, it’s best to consider how their successes could translate into creative breakthroughs in your personal profession.
By following a few principles of Olympic-level innovation, you can also “win a medal” in today’s grueling workplace competitions.
1. Seek group support for your individual creativity
“At this point, no one can beat Simone Biles,” said Nastia Liukin, the 2008 gold medalist. New York Times in 2016.
Coach Aimee Boorman notes that Biles’ routines require less running and allow her to do more acrobatics than other gymnasts. It’s this revolutionary combination of roundoff, back handspring, double layout, half-turn and landing that makes Biles the best in the world. While most gymnasts win by fractions of a point, Biles wins by a point or two.
Despite the whole lot, the Olympian is aware of the value of team competition.
After Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Games, she told her teammates they were well-trained and ready to compete without her, People reported. The team didn’t win gold, but Biles was still “very proud” of her silver medal, saying, “I owe it to the girls, it has nothing to do with me.”
2. Take advantage of innovations that others have already discovered
Phelps embodies a unique mix of physical gifts, exquisite technique and determination. Less obvious are the many years of innovation that paved the way for his dominance. Take, for example, his mastery of the underwater dolphin kick, which has so often propelled him to the medal podium.
Phelps used innovations that dated back at least to David Armbruster, who coached the University of Iowa swim team from 1917 to 1958. According to the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Armbruster first saw a demonstration of the dolphin kick in 1911, then began encouraging his swimmers to use it in the Nineteen Thirties as an alternative of the traditional frog kick. Others also played a role in the development of the kick, including physicist Volney Wilson, who was a swimming enthusiast and a co-creator of the World War II project that produced the first atomic bomb.
Moreover, in 2012, a professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University Rajat Mittal took an interest in swimming stroke evaluation and provided technical support to the U.S. Swimming Team. Television viewers see athletes striving for greatness for just two intense weeks, but the history and behind-the-scenes motion are actually a larger a part of the story.
3. Dream and then work like crazy
Daniel James Brown in his beautiful book Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympicstold a scene in which the University of Washington coach set himself the ambitious goal of defeating the best American rowing team and winning the gold medal at the Munich Olympics in 1936.
It’s no wonder that years of consuming work separated the inspiring reverie on the shores of Lake Washington from the historic moment when Americans became world champions under the baleful gaze of Adolf Hitler. But the thrill of victory often overshadows all the effort that led up to it.
You should always remember that it is the effort that turns dreams into reality. While many breakthroughs start with an idea, the ones that make a difference are realized through disciplined practice. Go ahead and dream, but then get down to work.
You can start by pondering about three essential questions:
- Which team members can motivate you to reach the next level of performance?
- What innovations are you able to rely on?
- How much work will it really take to turn an idea into results?
By taking motion based on your answers, you could possibly turn into an Office Olympian who wins gold in the workplace.