They didn't ask any weird questions, they didn't come up with any weird, you know, alternative solutions. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today I'm gonna talk about the Olympics. Now, if you know me or if you've been listening to all my episodes, you probably know that I'm not a big sports enthusiast. So I think that it's kind of ironic that I do enjoy watching the Olympics, and actually I get pretty emotional about watching the Olympics. Let me explain. If you watch any of the Olympics coverage, you know that a lot of the athletes have had issues, they've gone through their own personal trials and challenges, if you will, right? To get where they are. I mean, they've dedicated themselves from a very young age. Often it's not just watching the different um competitions, the different sports. It's not just about the different countries. I mean, the coverage that we see on our network TV is is very abbreviated compared to what and and how many competitions there are. So we're getting kind of, I think, the cream of the crop. If you want to go to uh like a streaming service, you can probably see a lot more detail. But we just we see more of the highlights. They have some kind of biographical, if you will, um stories about some of the athletes and they talk about some of their journeys. And to me, it's really amazing. I mean, here I am. I just struggle with trying to walk every day or take the dog for a walk or walk around the block or walk around the canyon. And here you have people who have suffered what I would consider kind of a catastrophic injury in the face of them, you know, doing their sport, right? And they had to go through a surgery or multiple surgeries, and they came back because they were so dedicated and they loved the sport so much. Um, Lindsay Vaughn, you know, she had I mean, she she had that horrible accident where she broke her leg during competition, but she had torn her ACL um in the beginning of the competition, the big when she first got there, I or right before, but she had already gone through and recovered from uh more physical challenges. These are people that aren't older like me, right? They people that are in their twenties or give or take, and they've suffered they've suffered leg breaks or bone breaks or you know, things that they had to rehab from, and they've come back and they've skied like mad down these mountains, or you know, they've done the the half pipe, or which is I mean, it just makes me dizzy to see these athletes go up in the air and twist around and land. And I wonder how much stress does that even put on your body to land if you're jumping up in the air, what, 15 feet or 20 feet, or even 10 feet. I mean, you know, I have the benefit of well, it's not benefit, let's face it, but I have the benefit of age knowing that the things that I did early on uh have caused me some issues that I'm suffering from now, right? My body didn't completely recover from the many falls that I had off horses. Um, and it's not just about repairing broken bones or recovering from hematomas or torn things, it's the arthritis that sets in and just the creakiness factor. But anyway, uh, but just I think what's good about what they're talking about now is also the mental health component of these competitions because you take somebody who has poured so much of their soul into their sport and practicing so many hours a day every day and loving it, and and that's wonderful. But sending somebody who's in their 20s or even their teens or even their 30s, it doesn't really matter. Sending somebody like that out onto the world stage, I mean, it's it's enough to say, okay, you're gonna be seen by millions of people in in our country, but to be seen and compete on a world stage, there's no pressure there. And so it's any wonder that a lot of these athletes are suffering, if you will, from mental health concerns, and that they get into their own head and it's affecting their performance. And so I really have to applaud our our day and times right now, and how the mental health factor has become part of the conversation because that's always been there. It just there was a stigma and it wasn't something that people talked about, but obviously it's it's it's always been a factor. And I think it's more of a factor now because you have social media and people can directly communicate and say, oh, well, they did a crappy job, or oh, why you know, I mean, if you get to the point where you're competing in the Olympics, whether it's the summer, winter, whatever, it doesn't matter if you come in 15th or 10th, or I mean however many people compete in the skating or the skiing or whatever um sport it is, it doesn't matter. You're a winner anyway. You don't have to win a medal, you've come so far. I mean, it's such a small portion of the population that gets to the Olympics anyway. In my mind, at least, um you're you're there. So um I find myself watching the Olympics and really crying a lot because I'm so touched by their stories, and and even though I didn't know them two weeks ago, I feel so involved in their lives and so supportive, and I want to see them, I want to see them succeed, and I want to see them win, and I want to see them feeling good about their performance, right? And I have to say it, okay, uh, being an only child and not always getting that personal level of support from my family, my my parents, watching the families come to be there to to cheer on their child, to cheer on their siblings, and and a lot of times just to see a member of the family be their coach, whether it's an uncle or a grandfather or you know, a parent. Um I'm I I turned to Bill the other night and I said, just imagine, just imagine having parents who are supportive. Um, because you know, I don't think that I would have ever had that level of support from my parents. I would have had to have dug deep and found it within my own psyche. Um I think, you know, maybe they would have let me do it, but they would have asked, why did why do you want to do that? Or I I just I don't think that they would have ever had that level of support for me. They never did have that level of support for anything I did. So um that's always a little bit bittersweet for me to see that, but I feel happy um for for the athletes that do, because obviously I think you really need you really need that support to get to that place, right? You really need to have um your your family or your friends, or you need to have um support behind you, moral support, emotional support. So um, yeah, it's it's so compelling, and it's so much more than just the sports. So um we always look forward to the Olympics. And oh, and then the other part is just that the different countries and and even just the different athletes are so supportive of each other, and it it it really shows that we're more alike than we are different. So um, so my own my own athlete here, my husband, we got to see the the pain doctor, if you will, the pain team this week, and they are going to schedule the nerve block for him. It's gonna be um it's gonna be another two and a half weeks before he can get the next one, but it seems that we can control his pain with the trauma doll, which is a good thing, and we're on board with that. And it was just, I have to say, it was really a good feeling to be able to go to a new doctor and not have to advocate. Uh, they understood where we were at, they were supportive of finding and getting to the solution as quickly as possible. They didn't ask any weird questions, they didn't come up with any weird, you know, alternative solutions, uh, like the last pain doctor did uh earlier last year, who wanted to put on, you know, implant electrodes or whatever in my husband. So um you might remember that if you've if you listened, I wanted to actually strangle him. So it was just very refreshing to go in, be very straightforward, and feel normal. So that is going in the direction that we'd hoped. Just a little bit longer, but I think everything will be okay. He won't be in pain. And he continues to work on his strength, strengthening exercises. So we're good to go there. So it's a good day. Um I don't have any complaints uh besides my own aches and pains. So uh that's all I've got for today. Next week, we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on. And consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, Only Child Diaries, or Facebook, Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace, and these are the Only Child Diaries.