Perhaps we need to redefine our idea of role models; they're not always elite athletes whose success might seem too distant or unachievable. Sometimes it's our friend who just smashed her first 10k, or our Zumba teacher who is enthusiastic, encouraging and real.
Interpretation
Role models can be everyday people who inspire us through their achievements and support.
In this quote, Tanni Grey-Thompson emphasizes the importance of redefining who qualifies as a role model. Rather than solely focusing on the elite and famous figures, she suggests that we should also acknowledge the achievements of ordinary individuals in our lives, such as friends or teachers, who motivate and uplift us by their genuine efforts and relatable successes.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage young athletes.
I wouldn't have had a sporting career if it hadn't been for the volunteers who agreed to coach me, as a teenager, growing up in south Wales, at a time when others were telling me that wheelchair racing wasn't really athletics.
As a disabled person I have to think and plan far more than anyone else. If I want to catch a bus I have to consider whether the ramp works, whether there will be someone in the one space who doesn't want to move. It can be a constant worry.
Disability sport came about largely because of exclusion, because mainstream sport didn't want disabled people to be part of it.
All right, every day ain't going to be the best day of your life, don't worry about that. If you stick to it you hold the possibility open that you will have better days.
You can do anything, but not everything.
Let us calmly and in a manly fashion go to work, instead of dissipating our energy in unnecessary frettings and fumings. I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything he really deserves. The past was great no doubt, but I sincerely believe that the future will be more glorious still.
Three men were laying brick. The first was asked: " What are you doing? He answered: " Laying some brick." The second man was asked: " What are you working for? " He answered: " Five dollars a day." The third man was asked: " What are you doing? He answered: " I am helping to build a great cathedral." Which man are you?
The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
I remember as a kid watching one of the Olympic games, and I was cheering for a big track athlete. He was the favorite to win, and he lost. I realized in that moment the pain he felt was so much greater than the pain that those who never thought they were going to win would have felt had they lost.
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