Is there anything more powerful in sport, than a good story?

I met Eli Bremer at the United States Olympic Training facility in Colorado Springs last month and even with the Olympic Games in Bejing still over a month away, he was in the middle of his intense training regimine. I was afraid that I might be taking too much of his time as he follows an incredibly detailed schedule. Maybe his time with me could be counted as a nap.

Here’s the basics:

Eli grew up riding horses and loved swimming on the Falfins swim team in Colorado Springs. He attended college at the United States Air Force Academy, where he competed in NCAA Division I Swimming and Fencing. Shortly after his graduation and commissioning, Eli was assigned to the Air Force’s World Class Athlete Program, and permitted to train pentathlon full time.

For those of you who don’t know much about the modern pentathlon (I didn’t either) it is the only sport created for the Olympics and was envisioned as a sport that tested both the mind and body of an athlete, a sport that would showcase the best all-around sportsmen.

They modeled the sport on the Nepolianic courier and the skills this soldier would need to deliver his message. First, he needed to be an accomplished horseman, he needed to be able to shoot and fence his way out of any enemy attacks. He needed to swim across rivers and run if all else failed.

In today’s format, athletes compete in all five disciplines in one day.

He met his future wife, Cami, at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. During the 2000-2004 timeframe, Eli established himself as a rising star in the sport of pentathlon. They were married in August 2003, and Eli continued his pursuit of competing in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. But an untimely broken foot ended his 2004 Olympic hopes. The silver lining was that Eli was hired by NBC to help produce the shooting event and then he became the only rookie commentator ever hired by NBC to provide commentary for an Olympic Games.

The U.S. Air Force allowed Eli to return to full-time training in late 2005. The fruits of his labor quickly became apparent, when he won PanAmerican Championships in 2005 and 2006. Dubbed by NBC as “Persistent Pentathlete,” Eli rounded out his domination of pentathlon in the PanAmerican region with a gold medal finish at the 2007 PanAmerican Games, thereby earning a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team.

So he’s on his way to Bejing. After a lot of work, a lot of focus and visioning and a tremendous anount of sacrifice and heartbreak.

You don’t train for greatness with a series of weekend workouts that are cut short ’cause, “Hey…It’s the Weekend.”

You wake up everyday sore from the previous days efforts, but you push yourself to do it all over again. You try to put out of your mind all the little things that could go wrong. You don’t want a shred of doubt in your mind, just the cool, clear focus on doing your absolute best when it’s time for you to shine.

Most of the athletes that go to the Olympics are in rarefied air in their sport. They’re in unbelievable physical conditioning. They have the benefit of top trainers and access to some of the best training science and equipment designed to minimize drag and shave thousandths of seconds off their times. They are at the right time and place to compete and they have devoted their lives to, in Eli’s sport, their one day in the sun.

I don’t understand the phrase, “Win or Lose.” I understand that someone will come in first and more, will not. But given the determination, the sacrifice and sheer effort of every cell of the athlete’s mind and body focused on a single task (or Five,) how can you judge that performance by anything else less than, “Success?”

It’s what I’ll be rooting for Eli when he competes August 20th; “Success!”

I’ll share more of my interview with Eli Bremer later where he talks candidly about the mental part of his training process, his fears and what he learned about the Olympics “behind the scenes” that will help him as he competes later this month.

Keep up with Eli’s pursuit of Success by visiting his website http://elibremer.com/index.htm where you can find his blog http://elibremer.com/travels_journal.htm

 

 Eli Bremer, US Olympic Pentathlete [10:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup