SHEEX has been proud to support several Olympic hopefuls and athletes this year; two of whom qualified to compete on the world’s biggest sport’s stage, the 2012 London Olympics.
Leading up to London, SHEEX Sleep Ambassadors Hyleas Fountain and Brad Walker had more than just Olympics dreams while resting and recovering in their SHEEX – - they also dreamed of the podium and ultimately winning the Gold! Both athletes traveled to London with a set of SHEEX, and Brad even shared several SHEEX SLEEP•SAX with his U.S. Olympic teammates!
Hyleas Fountain is the 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist and was a favorite to compete for the win in London. She masterfully won the U.S. Olympic Trials in June and looked like a strong contender against the UK’s fan favorite Jessica Ennis during the first day of the Olympic Heptathlon competition. The heptathlon is an extremely physically demanding event consisting of 7 track and field events (high jump, javelin, long jump, 100 hurdles, 200 meters, shot put and 800 meters) and contested over two days, and despite Hyleas’ strong early season form, extreme back pain would overtake her chance to earn another podium finish as she was forced to withdraw on the second day of competition.
Brad Walker is the American Record Holder in the Pole Vault and is the 2007 Pole Vault World Champion. After preliminary rounds Brad was ranked 4th, a comfortable position to reach his goals as he headed into the final. Unfortunately, he missed on three jump attempts during the final (as did many athletes due to swirling winds, including the defending Olympic Champion) and was eliminated from the finishing standings of the competition.
Brad’s outlook after “failing” on the biggest stage in sports sums up what separates Olympians from mere mortals, but also what can inspire us to achieve our goals even if they do not include an Olympic medal:
Failure. I’ve said this about my Olympic performance and everybody keeps saying that I didn’t fail. Why has the word failure become such a no no. If I had a silver medal around my neck, I would have failed to reach gold. Failure to me is an acceptable outcome. I have prepared for this meet to the absolute best of my ability. Sacrificed more then most people know or realize. But for those very same reasons, this failure is perfectly okay. I didn’t give up. I didn’t cut corners, or stop working my ass off when no one was around. I would gladly FAIL pushing the limits of my training then continuing to use the SAFE workouts. I will gladly fail fighting for the gold, then safely receiving silver. In the pole vault we almost always leave the track failing the last three attempts at every meet. Failing is not the enemy, not giving your all is. I will continue to fail at things the rest of my life, but by no means will I ever say that I am a failure.
