Woody’s Marathon is pleased to host Olympic Gold Medalist, Kyle Shewfelt as our guest speaker during our pasta dinner on Saturday, May 18th. Kyle is a native Albertan who was born and raised in Calgary and able to reach the ultimate success in his sport of gymnastics at the Athens Games winning Canada’s first Olympic medal in the sport of Artistic Gymnastics. Kyle attributes much of his success to his past coach Kelly Manjak in which he said to Kyle these words prior to his Olympic performance “I’m proud of you no matter what the result. In my eyes, you’re already a champion.” These words inspired Kyle to relax and perform his best, and it turned out to be the best in the world.
In the 2007 World Championships Kyle was competing in Stuttgart, Germany and he misjudged a landing doing an Arabian double front layout and the result was 2 broken legs. Kyle stated that “It instantaneously gave me a new chase and a focal point. I had only 11 months to recover in time for Beijing. I literally felt the spark ignite inside my belly the moment I was told the news.” Kyle spent every hour of every day till the Beijing Olympics rehabilitating his legs and training till he once again returned to his 3rd Olympics. Although he did not win he was absolutely delighted as he proved to himself “Life, similar to sport, is not about being THE best. It’s about being YOUR best. And it’s about holding yourself accountable to that standard every single day.”
If you are looking for inspiration visit Kyle’s website !
