Adversity Builds Character?

One of the reasons I love sports in general is because it is encouraging to see individuals and teams overcome extraordinary adversity to claim victory. Stories of the human spirit are played out right in front of you. When the underdog or a horse with 50 to 1 odds wins, I realize that if you believe in yourself and your team, you can overcome any obstacle in your path.

Back in the early 80’s, way before all of the safety advancements of today’s NASCAR race cars, Ricky Rudd was in a serious accident during the Busch Clash at Daytona. His seat broke, and he was bouncing around in the car as it rolled. His window net came down, and his arm was flailing around outside the car. He was taken to a local hospital, where doctors wanted to keep him overnight for observation. He had suffered torn cartilage in his rib cage, and prospects did not look good for his racing in the Daytona 500. Ricky, however, wanted to get back to the track to continue practicing for the biggest race of the year. When his wife Linda pleaded with him, Ricky got up and walked over to a mirror in his hospital room, where he saw how badly his face was swollen. He gave into the pressure and decided to stay the night.

The next day he was back at the track to practice in a back-up car. When he got up to speed and went barreling into the turn, he lost his sight. He could see nothing, even though he was completely conscious. Not being able to see at 180 mph was not a good feeling. When he got back onto the straight-away and slowed, however, his sight returned. Ricky figured out that the g forces at those speeds in the turn, coupled with how severely his face was swollen, forced his eyes closed no matter how hard he tried to keep them open.

His solution: tape his eyelids to his eyebrows so they wouldn’t be able to close. His crew tried this, and when Ricky went back out on the track to practice, he had no problem. Ricky ended up racing the Daytona 500 to a very respectable 7th place finish at speeds of nearly 200 mph. The very next week he came back to win at Richmond.

I often hear that adversity builds character. This may be. What adversity really does is reveal character. We face challenges every day in our lives. The way we address them is a direct result of the kind of character we have. In these challenging times we need to remember what we are capable of overcoming. We need to push forward through the pain, because victory is waiting for us on the other side.

Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com