The tough journey to Olympic greatness

One of the reasons we admire the Olympic dream so much is that it's so difficult to achieve, but right now Carly Patterson looks like the real deal. One of her strengths is a dismount that no one else in the world is doing. It's pretty hard, but it's a really cool dismount I think. Carly Patterson's elite career could be summed up in just two words, short but remarkable. In less than two years, she won two American Cup trophies, an all-around silver medal at the 2003 World Championships, and claimed the sport's most prestigious crown, the Olympic all-around title, which she earned at the Athens Games, later adding a beam silver to her resume as well. Yet before her rise to glory, Patterson's journey was one of resilience through adversity. At the 2001 Goodwill Games, a young, inexperienced Carly was facing tough like double Olympic champions Svetlana Khorkina and Yelena Zamlodchikova from Russia, and the legendary Oksana Shusavitna with an almost decade-long career at that point. But despite the odds not being in her favor, given her limited experience at such a high level, the American gymnast was actually having a pretty solid competition. That is, until the last rotation of the all-around final. She was comfortably ranked second after rotation number three, and only needed a 9.131 score to walk home with the gold. However, what would unfold next would be far from a hit performance. Carly sat down three of her four floor-tumbling passes, scoring a harsh 7.125, which knocked her down to 7th place. At the time, a fall counted a .5 deduction. So if we removed three falls from her score, she would have ended up with the bronze. While still not enough for the gold, she would have at least made the podium, assuming all her landings were clean, of course. In all fairness, there were reports the American athlete looked exhausted during the meet due to being ill with the flu, which, combined with her inexperience, may have led to her underperformance. She also made the beam final at these games, but fell off the apparatus on her first skill, finishing in 5th place. Although far from idyllic, the 2001 Goodwill Games were a real test of Carly's strength and resilience, and a crucial stepping stone in her journey to Olympic gold and her development as an athlete.