kayla harrison, olympic survivor.

"this is my day.
this is my purpose.
i am an olympic champion."

for five years, this was kayla harrison's mantra.
it got her through the hardest part of her life,
& it got her through the best:
winning judo gold in her first olympics.

6yo kayla began judo at her mother's urging.
at 8yo, the little girl from middletown, ohio,
began training with coach daniel doyle.
he took her to two national championships & several international tournaments
by the time she turned sweet 16.

he also took her trust & her childhood —
at 16yo, kayla revealed to a friend that her coach
had been sexually abusing her for years.
the friend told kayla's mom, who first
smashed doyle's car windows with a baseball bat,
then called the police & had him arrested.

kayla was broken.

her mother, in an instinctive & insightful move,
sent kayla to wakefield, massachusetts,
to train with two-time medal-winner jimmy pedro & his father, big jim,
at their full-time resident training program for judokas,
team force [focus on results, civic responsibility & education].

slowly & surely, pedro helped kayla rebuild her strength & sense of self.
in 2010, she became the first u.s. woman to win a judo world championship
in 26 years, & the first of either gender to win
it since pedro had in 1999.

harrison returned to ohio to testify against her abuser,
who pled guilty, was sentenced to serve ten years in prison
& was expelled for life from usa judo.

then harrison came to the london games as the highest-ranked
u.s. judoka, regardless of gender or weight class.

it was her day.
it was her purpose.
& she became an olympic champion.

22yo harrison beat team gb's gemma gibbons
2-0 in the women's under-78kg division.

"she should inspire many to be brave, to have courage, to realize
they're a victim, & to come forward & move on with their lives," says pedro.
"kayla harrison stepped forward. she is a hero.
there's nothing on the olympic mat that compares with what she's already beat."

harrison, now happily engaged to firefighter aaron handy
& working toward becoming a firefighter herself,
sums up her greatest lesson learned thusly:

"never give up on your dreams.
i mean, if i can do it, anybody can do it.
this just proves that you're only a victim
if you allow yourself to be."

habiba ghribi, olympic first.

habiba ghribi is a woman. a tunisian. a runner.
& the first tunisian woman ever to win an olympic medal.

28yo ghribi won silver in the women's 3,000m steeplechase [obstacle race],
behind world champion yuliya zaripova of russia.

"this medal is for all the tunisian people,
for tunisian women, for the new tunisia," ghribi said.

but while tunisia may be "new," it's not necessarily improved.

the north-african country underwent a revolution in late 2010/early 2011,
leading to a thorough democratization of the nation & free, democratic elections.
but the winner was the islamist ennahda movement.
& though ennahda assumed power with a pledge of not weakening women's rights, party leaders have proposed a constitution which states
women are "complementary" — not equal — to men, in the family & in the country.

within this environment of diminishing equality among the sexes,
conservative muslims felt free to express their disgust & outrage at
ghribi's olympic performance, in which she ran "in her underpants" —
a reference to ghribi's standard-length running shorts.

luckily, some important tunisians support ghribi.
during a recent radio debate with a member of ennahda,
independent al aridha party member ibrahim kassas joked,
"the underpants of habiba ghribi have honored us.
what have [ennahda members'] underpants done for us?"

missy franklin, olympic phenom.

missy franklin struck me as just about
the most down-to-earth aquatic athlete ever.

the 17yo from centennial, colorado,
was the first u.s. woman to compete in seven olympic swimming events.
counting qualifying & semifinal rounds, she swam 15 races
during the london games.

she medaled five times — four gold, one bronze.
she established a new world's record twice.
she established a new american record the other three times.

melissa jeanette franklin was born in pasadena, california,
the daughter of two canadian parents.
she began swimming at age five.

she has been coached by todd schmitz of the colorado stars club team
since she was seven. he has never coached an olympian before.

missy, now 6'1" with size 13 feet & a smile just about as big,
to date has declined prize money & endorsements
so she can continue to compete as an amateur
for her high-school team at regis jesuit.

day one of olympic competition, missy —
along with teammates jessica hardy, lia neal & allison schmitt —
won her bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay
with a time of 3:34.24, a new american record.
australia won the gold, the netherlands the silver.

day three, missy won her first gold
in the 100m backstroke with a time of 58:33,
beating her own american record.

day five, missy won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay —
along with teammates allison schmitt, dana vollmer & shannon vreeland —
with a time of 7:42.92, a new american record.

day seven, missy won gold & broke the world record
in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:04.06,
the first american woman to win the event in 40 years.

finally, missy — along with teammates allison schmitt,
rebecca soni & dana vollmer — won gold in the 4x100m medley relay
with a world-record-breaking time of 3:52.05.

it should be noted, in the two events where she didn't medal,
missy came in fourth [200m freestyle] & fifth [100m freestyle].

of the 10,500 or so athletes competing at the london games,
only one earned more medals than missy: michael phelps, who won six.

oksana chusovitina, olympic inspiration.

oksana chusovitina,
in a sport where athletes older than teen-age are considered ancient
— the misnomered women's gymnastics —
has been competing for more than two decades,
in six olympic games, under three different flags.

oksana is the 37yo mother who took fifth in the vault.

she began her gymnastics career in the soviet union;
following the breakup of the ussr, she competed in barcelona for
the unified team in 1992, winning team gold.
oksana competed for uzbekistan at the following three olympics.

but in 2002, her 3yo son, alisher, was diagnosed with
acute lymphocytic leukemia. oksana moved to germany
so that her son could receive quality treatment, & continued
to compete in order to use the winnings for medical bills.

alisher fully recovered, & as a sign of gratitude,
oksana offered to join the german national team.
she eventually became a german citizen
& won silver in beijing for her newly adopted homeland in 2008.

oksana now intends to retire & continue to coach german gymnasts.
she says the timing is perfect: "i'm happy.
i'm not injured, i'm healthy & i'm a mummy."

kristin armstrong, olympic mama.

kristin armstrong
is not related to he of the seven tour de france triomphes,
but it doesn't mean she's not
a killer on the bike.

armstrong, a native of boise, idaho,
does what's known as "the race of truth" —
because, as armstrong puts it,
"it's just you against the clock."

just days before her 39th birthday,
armstrong won the gold in the women's individual time trial,
completing the 18-mile course almost 16 seconds faster than
silver medalist judith arndt of germany.

russia's olga zabelinskaya earned the bronze.

it was armstrong's third consecutive summer games
& her second consecutive time to win the gold —
though this time she earned the additional distinction of becoming
the oldest gold medalist in olympic cycling in a road event.

armstrong was a professional triathlete
until she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the hips;
forced to quit high-impact running, she turned to racing bikes.

she briefly retired from cycling three years ago
while pregnant with her son, lucas,
but returned to the sport last year.

& she broke her collarbone in may in a racing accident,
but had surgery & was back on the bike within a week.
she's one tough mama.

[above: lucas joined her up on the medals podium — olympic cuteness.] :)

claressa shields, olympic champion.

american middleweight boxer claressa shields,
a 17yo high-school senior from flint, michigan,
beat russia's nadezda torlopova 19-12
to become the only team usa fighter to win the gold
in the inaugural year for women's olympic boxing.

for the first time, the winningest nation in boxing history
got no medals from its men's team. none of other
eleven american boxers even reached a gold-medal match.

claressa, who lives with her single mom & two younger siblings,
began boxing at age eleven upon hearing her father,
a former amateur boxer, speak about laila ali,
who followed in her father's famous floating footsteps.

"there were people who were telling me
i couldn't do this," claressa says.
"whenever somebody doubts me, it makes me push harder.
so actually, the haters kind of helped."

claressa's big win made her not only
the first american women's boxer to win gold, but also
the second-youngest american fighter ever to win gold
[the youngest was 16yo john fields, 88 years ago], &
the youngest american olympic boxer since
16 yo davey lee armstrong 40 years ago.

naturally, it also made claressa a hometown hero &
a great inspiration for the african-american girls of flint,
where the wrong path can be hard to avoid.

"when i used to go running, i'd see all these crackheads,"
recounts claressa. "i just didn't want to be like them.
i wanted it to be where my little sister & brother & my mom
would never have to go without a meal again. "

flint councilman bryant nolden called claressa
"a rose that grew out of a concrete jungle;
& if a rose can grow through concrete,
then you know must be extremely resilient."

asked what she thought of as she watched
the u.s. flag raise to the rafters, claressa answered,
"i was thinking, 'god knows my heart.'"

the women's games.

i heart the olympics, big-time.

i love the global-ity.

i love the eye-popping athletic prowess.

i love becoming an armchair expert about obscure sports
that these athletes have committed their lives to mastering.

i love the ecstasy, the agony, the occasional scandal. the drama.

i love team usa, & the national pride & unity they elicit.

i love watching our stars & stripes rise above the crowd
while listening to the star-spangled banner. *sniff.*

& this summer, i loved loved loved the women.
the ass-kicking, name-taking, medal-winning women of london 2012.

for the first time, all 204 participating countries
included women in their teams [including the first women
athletes from saudi arabia, qatar & brunei].
in fact, women represented a record 44% of the almost 11,000 olympic athletes.

for the first time, team usa featured more female athletes than male [269 vs. 261].
females also outnumbered males on china & russia's teams.

the oldest team usa member was female: equestrian karen o'connor, 54.
the youngest team usa members was female: swimmer katie ledecky, 15.

for the first time, women's boxing was included in the games.
women won 56% of team usa's medals, & 66% of its golds [including one in boxing!].

13 team usa members were moms. :)

so, in honor of what some are terming "the women's Games,"
& to keep the olympic torch aflame a little longer
[did i mention i love the olympics?],
i'll be telling some of the stories of the girls of summer 2012
over the next 16 days, hoping to amaze & inspire
all over again.


image source: florence griffith-joyner, who won gold medals in the 100m, 200m [world record] & 4x100m relay at the 1988 summer olympic games in seoul, via allvoices.com.