Having just arrived back from Madrid, where the annual conference was held for the international sailing organization, I am excited to announce my campaign for the 2012 Olympics has officially begun!! The equipment for my sailing class was a hot topic and I did my best as a member of the athletes commission to promote that choice as well as push for some governance changes. I also had met with the king and queen of Greece and was delighted to sit with them at the same dinner table for the awards ceremony. Unfortunately the queen didn’t have any daughters! And of course I asked!
As with anything in life change is met by much resistance, but change can be for the better, as long as you make use of every change and opportunity that comes your way. I went through all the options in front of me. I took out my notebook and listed all the goods, bads, and uglys that I had done in the past four years. I then decided there is nothing in my life that could quite compare to competing at the Olympic games again. If I could be there one more time, I’d do it differently, and I think I could win with proper preparation this next time around. The reality is I’ve found renewed energy for competition, something found deep inside my heart. I have not ever felt so motivated to compete again. The reception since the Olympic Games has been a heartwarming delight and to share with schools and organizations has inspired me as well to continue competing. I’ve heard plenty of “you must be so proud to have just been there”, and I was, but I left empty handed. Deep inside of me I want to win, and now in my new circumstances, I can do just that unequivocally.
I live for the upcoming days, and will share with you all of my thoughts and ups and downs along the way. BenBarger.com is being completely redone and will be much more active with what matters the most, motivation and spirit. The changes I needed to make; part personal and part competitively have fallen into place and I have now made a new plan to improve on the biggest areas needed to win. My time, my team and increased focus. So no law school right now, no jobs in management, I turned off my jobs in consulting, and am going for it all the way. I won’t let this opportunity slip by, I have to seize it and now I know I can. Yes, I am smiling right now!
There is sometimes never an argument with your gut feeling, and for me that gives me great certainty in continuing hard into 2009. I hope to emerge as a player that is in serious medal contention, and nothing less. We’ll be in touch shortly, I am after a win at the first world cup event at the Miami championships in January. Training partners are arriving in a week, and I will not let up until I have finished this with all I have left in my heart. Thank you for cheering me on so loudly and counseling me through the losses as well as the wins. It’s time to make a Gold happen. Until soon, don’t give up and make some history! With much love!
Ben Barger
P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!
It was an absolutely fantastic trip to the White house this week, in fact one that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It’s not a normal day when I am able to be in the same house that the president and his family live in, be surrounded by secret service and meet up with all the other US Olympians at the same time. To top it all off I had lunch in the west wing and just happened to bump into our secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, among others that I never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be able to meet. I tried not to sound too surprised!The event started on Monday were all the US Olympic Team and Para Olympic Team spent the night in the Hilton, we all met up for dinner in the events room. It was great, everybody had so many stories to tell, so much excitement to see each other again. Some had retired, some had been on tours with the family, and some are back to racing again. It was awesome!.
The next morning we all went in 25 coach busses to the white house South Lawn, where we had to go through a borage of security before we could make it in. Heavily fortified would be an understatement, there were secret service everywhere, who never took a break from eying the scene. But the white house is absolutely stunning and so well maintained and pristine with a heritage that rivals anything out there. We all made our way to the stands and took our seats waiting for the president to arrive. This was the second time I would see him in less than a month! He also came to the fencing hall in China, and spent time with each team, I felt awfully spoiled. His speech in person is a lot more lively than the way too serious speeches he does on TV, he loves to crack a laugh with the audience and you can see his charisma with the US team, he clearly enjoys the Olympic Spirit! After the speech we shake his hand again, he congrats everybody and then we take a tour of the white house.
The inside of the White House is fantastic, but basically a museum. There was the Green room, the Red room, the expansive library, the State Dining room to name a few. Not sure what they would do with all that living space but they had each inch of the walls hung with famous paintings from artists such as George PA Healy portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1869. It was definitely a tour of the nations deepest roots and really touching to be this close in person.After I toured the white house, I had a lunch appointment with James Connaugton, the chairman of the council on Environmental Quality. I really didn’t know what I was getting into. After meeting Mr. Connaugton at his office we arrived to the west wing, yes the West Wing! A Marine opened the door for us, and the secretary greeted us by our names and lead us into the “mess” they call it, where we had lunch. Now I have had some good lunches in my time at leading hotels (and Kim Bailey’s food), but nothing compares to going to the executive dining hall in the white house. On the way there, I was just following along staring at the walls, and here comes Ms. Condoleezza Rice, I am taking a second look, I was like, does she work here, where I am standing??? Mr. Connaugton introduced us, it was fantastic, she was personable and enjoyed hearing my story of the Olympics. I was in way over my head, as usual! So we arrive to the dining hall and are greeted by the host and escorted to our table walking by all the white house notables. As you can imagine the food was outstanding, the service was first class. I had a great lunch with Mr. Connaugton, asked him a ton of questions about his role as advisor to the president and learned a lot about the inside business. He was personable and very likable, I can tell why he was hired to do the job, he gave me some good advice for the future and it was inspiring. I always love meeting people that have done something with their lives, lived with inspiration and dreams and completed them. And here I was speaking to one. Not only that, but he treated me as a success. I was flattered, I am just an average guy who lives big, goes hard and out works the rest.
After our lunch we took a tour of the west wing, and I was surprised at how cozy or quaint the building was in person. Much more intimate than what you see on TV. I saw all the main conference rooms where they save the country from crisis as well as the coffee machine. But I couldn’t help but notice all the pictures of the president on the hallway, all covered in mud at his ranch mountain biking. I really thought it was totally cool, Mr. Connaugton thought I should invite the president to a mountain bike ride.
I was like would he even read my mail? Does he read outside mail? I guess we’ll see! We then went up stairs and saw the Chief of Staffs office, which was expansive and very bright with many windows and books everywhere. A touch of antiqueness with a business feel would be my best explanation. We walked by the oval office and through the Economics area, and of course they were all working very diligently!
As we left the west wing we then visited the press room, where all the main press stories are aired to the public. I took to the podium and pretended for a second I was saving the country, the press crew turned on all the bright lights, actually pretty intimidating room. I took a picture (attached) and then we left the white house.
This was the most epic tour of the white house I could have ever imagined, and I definitely never thought I’d get this kind of reception from being an Olympian. It was a great honor to race for our great country, and see so many people take such pride in the games. I hope I’ll be blessed with another opportunity. I’ve been at work planning reviewing and training it up, 2012 will approach before I know it, and I need to be ready for that perfect gold medal performance. Thanks for cheering me on. We’ll be in touch.
I’ve been to the city hall, the courthouse, the police station…and the key doesn’t work anywhere!!!
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Well it’s been less than a month since I have returned back from the Olympic Games in China and I am still trying to find time to relax! I have enjoyed seeing many of you, again thanks for your unwavering support! It is still sinking in about what an honor it was to represent our great country at the Olympics. Yesterday I was invited to a Commissioners meeting in Pinellas county, my hometown. There I was surprised with cameras, a standing ovation and then had to make a surprise speech, I hope it turned out well! I was honored with the key to the county and a certificate! Wow what a surprise, they only told me that they wanted to meet me. This is the best part of the whole Olympic experience, seeing everybody light up with enthusiasm, sharing the dream with others and seeing them get inspired as well. I have always learned more from the losses than from the wins, but in all times its picking myself back up again and improving with hard work and diligence. To see some of the video from the meeting check it out here: rtsp://vstream1.co.pinellas.fl.us/bcc-2008-09-16.rm.
Next week I’ll be flying to London for a sailing client of mine for websites, and then the week after I’ll be at the white house with the other Olympians to meet the President. I’ll tell him you said hi! (or goodbye)
Coming up I’ll be doing some lectures at local schools and other clubs, this is exciting for me, to share my enthusiasm. That’s a dream come true. So keep building your momentum, stop selling yourself short with excuses and attract the success you deserve into your life.
So what is the next step? Well I do want to compete in London for the 2012 games, but at the same time I have to rest and also build some more stability for myself right now. So first I’ll be writing and reflecting on the past 4 years, what went right, what went wrong. After I’ll be adding more work, or studying for my masters, so my resume doesn’t get terribly behind! Don’t worry, I’ve been training the past 15 years, and never will ever stop, but there are seasons of rest and also seasons of back breaking intensity. I left the Olympic Games knowing I had a lot more left in me, and those days I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Until that is London, where I can finish this off properly! Stay in touch and I’ll keep you updated!
As I sit here..the dust is settling from the event of my biggest dreams. Yes I was there, I fought hard, I wouldn’t trade that experience in for anything. Dreams do come true..and they were worth every penny of sacrifice. But it’s a sacrifice extended beyond just me, it reaches to my family, my friends and all my supporters. I think of the Olympics as a gauntlet, that tests you in ways you never imagined, a litmus test to your beliefs and preparation.
The financial markets are under stress, hurricanes are reeling b-lines to florida, the housing market is making things look gloomy. ..and I sit here, relaxed, happy, I am living my dream. Don’t ever give up on them you’ll only wish you hadn’t. Don’t forget, the only person that can believe in you is you. It’s something that you have to develop yourself and reflect upon to grow. So it is now, I reflect on me, for me. Pray for seas of gratitude. I am on vacation, finally. I never knew how hard it was until it’s over. And what’s funny is that it’s just begun! We’ll talk soon, Ben
I love competition and I love training for it, and I still love the game even though not winning breaks my heart. I hope I’ll get another chance to redeem myself, 2012 is a long ways away, but I can tell you deep inside me, I can’t go out like this, not now, I know I can crack this game. I know I’ll be training as soon as I get home. I’ll have to sort out priorities, I am getting older, but there is something that always gets stronger my love for the game and my conviction to doing it with all your heart and fear. I’ll be back, with stronger results and more experience than before, and hopefully I can convince you to give me one last shot at this. There is no greater feeling, than to be representing our fine country on the world stage, reading every single one of your notes to remind myself to stay strong when things get tough, to take loss with my head up, to learn from this and continue to share what heck of a ride this is.
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I’ve uploaded many of the videos and pictures from the games, I hope you like them..I finally got my 2nd amendment rights reinstated!
I love you all for such strength you’ve brought, me, and I hope with sharing you the full story you understand how great the feeling is to be an Olympian, and also how hard it is. I love my life. It’ll take some time for me to swallow this experience, but I promise I will follow up with each and everyone of you who has sent your cheers. I congratulate Tom and Yin for winning the Gold in the windsurfing men and women. .
Yours,
Ben Barger
Back in Qingdao it was back to business, the forecast for the first few days was for light winds. Day 1 brought 8 knots of winds from the seabreeze direction and it was incredibly choppy and noisy with helicopters flying overhead the entire time. The first race I had a great start, headed upwind with super high intensity crossed back over the rest of the fleet back to the right in around 5th place and then lost about 5 more when I crossed back left. When I crossed back left, I had to duck MEX, on port it was close and he protested me, I was like great, not even 10 minutes of racing and I had to do my circle, I did my 360 and then was in about 20th place, not good. I pushed hard downwind, but I felt off, I couldn’t reel them back in as I did in training. So I finished the first race in 21st out of 36, mid fleet blues. After the finish MEX said he was going to protest me for not doing a 720..I almost lost it, during the Olympic trials I was protested for not doing a 720 as well..because the actual rule is a 360 penalty turn. He later figured it out, and apoligzed. I had to mentally regroup again for the second race. I went back left and this time I was off on the shift and rounded deep at the top mark, I did my best to catch about 15 people but at the last mark my footstrap became tangled around the mark, the Beijing 2008 logo had a rope on the bottom of it that tied a twisted knot around my footstrap, I was like you’ve got to be kidding, I had to jump in the water to untangle my board. By the time I got up it was too late and I was really really frustrated, I had finished worse than some of my worst performances of the season. Disappointed was an understatement.
Day 2 wasn’t better the wind was lighter and I was off on the shifts and speed, I couldn’t hold onto the leaders in my speed and got further frustrated and exhausted, it was only day 2 and I was already feeling tired. I got a tow back to the harbor with the Slovak team as I couldn’t find my coach for the day. I just wanted to cry on my pillow, I was having a nightmare of a regatta, this is THE regatta and I was sailing bad, worse than my average all season, and everywhere I went on the race course was the wrong way and I was slow. I couldn’t figure it out, I added pressure to my battens, I changed downhaul, I reshimmed my centerboard, I pumped slower and faster nothing seemed to work like it did in training.
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Day 3 turned into day 4 then 5 as the next few scheduled race days there wasn’t enough wind to race. We’d go out then sail back in, races were abandoned, while my results stayed mid fleet. I knew I had much more in me. Race 5 finally happened on the 6th day and we had to wait until really late, the wind was offshore and about 9 knots, a good condition for me. I rounded the first mark in 15th, then caught more on the downwind to get to 11th then back upwind into the top 10, I felt like the time off the last few days helped, then on the last downwind to the finish, the wind shut off then shifted 30 degrees and all the guys behind went right around the leaders. I went back to the mid twenties and extremely frustrated again. My bad luck continued, momentum was going the wrong way,I wasn’t positive and I was depressed at such high scores so early in the regatta. I knew I had to stay positive, focus on the process and get around my weaknesses.
Race 6 happened a day later in the middle of stormy weather. The regatta was behind schedule and there was a large system of low pressure sweeping in the area that made 20+ knots of wind and high seas, great everything the statistics said that wouldn’t happen. First race I had a great start then slowly drifted back, my speed was way off in the breeze, I later found out it was because my battens were too tight, the new sail was much more sensitive to this than my other sails I used all season. The rain continued to pour, I couldn’t open both eyes, one was shut and one was lookging around. Nobody could see the marks as the visibility was terrible because of the rain, I was sure they would abandon the race because of the storms, but no cigar, they decided to race another. At this point, everybody had that uh oh face, and after we started one after another fell, as the board would get lifted and thrown upside down. My turn to fell came, I got back up and had to catch up, so I did passed 12 people and got back to my dreaded mid fleet. Was going decently fast again as I released the battens and was going ok again with speed, but was less than tuned in as I had not focused on this much wind since 4 months ago in Europe. Still I managed a better day than the second place overall guy and things changed in the regatta a lot with the leaders at that point.
Two more days pass waiting for the wind, the race committee needed more races in, we had an early start and it turned out to be great wind, 12-15 knots my sweet spot. I was in the top ten all race, until, yes I hate saying until, but that was the story of this regatta, until the last downwind, where I had a plastic bag on my fin, I couldn’t shake it off, I got passed slowly by 7 people to finally get it off and finish in the teens, not good but well I took what score I could muster at that point. By the end of that race it was it was getting light, back to around 6-7 knots, I raced hard, but was again a little slow, little off and finished again deep. We had one more race scheduled but we had to go in first, I found my ride in with James from the US, who was very helpful. We took a new approach with the current on the next race, we started late in the day I hit the left side hard and was in 3rd place and the rest of the fleet way behind when they abandoned the race with the left shift that came in. I was just like…why why why???! Give me some love..any. It was hard to see all my family watch me suffer, I hate losing, it’s hard to talk when things go the other way. I had to remind myself to keep at it, sail like hell and focus on the game.
Here are some areas I would like to improve:
1) speed and technique (with the new gear I wasn’t nearly as in sync as I was in training) Spend more time refining technique to improve efficiency
2) do training much more similar to racing (much of my training were in practice races about 15 minutes long, which is less than half the time of a normal race and my technique fell apart towards the end of each race
3) have consistent coaching support (at the olympics I had a different coach each day, and their priority was other athletes, this I’ll have to change with US Sailing at the next one)
4) sail more carefully when tired, frustrated (it’s easy to feel good when your ahead, but it takes more focus to ensure that you don’t make the little errors when under high stress) This cost me many points in the regatta
focus much harder on the international fleet and not the US fleet (I spent most of my time training to win the Olympic trials, which is a much smaller event and changes the tactical nature of racing substantially. I’d use more time focusing on winning the worlds each year, than just winning the trials every 4 years.
Not be so hard on myself, I have the second best results at the Olympiad since gebis results when he raced last. For my first olympics they are in-line with first time racing Olympians
7) 25 of the 36 athletes at the olympics were 2-5 time Olympians and the 11 that weren’t were almost all towards the back. So I won that group.
Do less all by myself, I am a bit too independent with training sometimes, and need to engage in more training partners and organized training with the worlds best more consistently.
Luckily my event started on august 11th and the opening ceremony was of course on august 8th so it gave me a good amount of time before my event started to recover for the first day. Much to my surprise only 3 or 4 windsurfers took the journey to Beijing. Mostly citing possibility of getting sick or being tired, I took the plunge and will savor that experience the rest of my life. The US sailing team went with team leader, “dean’ and about half of the rest of the sailing team. We left at 9 AM from Qingdao and went straight to the Beijing Olympic Village.
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The village was massive with a large sprawl of housing that felt like forever to walk around. The weather was absolutely oppressive with hotter than florida temperatures and super high humidity and smoggy. As I mentioned before the Olympic village in Beijing was OK, not nearly as nice as ours in Qingdao, but was cool to be with all the different kinds of athletes from around the world. Each building was decked out with country flags and murals and rituals from different countries. Some ,like the kingdom of Bahrain had inflatable arches and many silly looking pictures of the king everywhere. Greece had a flag the equivalent size of 5 floors on the side of their building, whilst the US building had only one small 2-3 foot flag on each window of ours. Seems to me the US team was extremely concerned about being portrayed as “too proud”, my flag on my sail was larger than any I could find in the village identifying us as American.
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The dining hall in Beijing’s village is massive when we entered we all immediately looked like tourists and got lost from each other. We ate some and people watched a lot, all kinds of different athletes from everywhere we eating chatting and socializing. I took some photos with pro cyclist, george hiacappie and US triathlete Hunter Kemper to name a few. One of our team mates found Amanda Beard and bragged about it for the next two days! The fun for the day was just getting started. By 5 pm we had to meet together downstairs in complete opening cermonies uniform. I don’t know if you watched it on TV but that meant suit tie and long pants.and don’t forget 90 degree heat, it was epic hot, I packed my pockets with one camera, one video camera, 2 bottles of water and one cliff bar.
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We got word at that point our first destination was to the fencing hall to meet with commander and Chief George W Bush. So off on the busses to the fencing hall and we all organize in the center by sport, each of us would have some time with the president!..very cool indeed. While waiting the NBA basketball players stroll up and the rest of the teams frenzy to snap photos with them. Lebron James, Kobe Bryant were the most popular and it was cool to see them with us just relaxing. After waiting for about an hour, we see some secret service and then we get called back to our teams. The president sarts off with his speech, which you can see in the video I took, then proceeded to meet and greet the rest of the teams. He spent ample time with each one, and I was trying to figure out the whole time how to document it, so I just kept the video camera running, and took as many pictures as possible. My favorite might be the one I couldn’t find anybody to hold the camera and so I “self portraited” myself with the president when he wasn’t quite looking. He wished me luck and shook my hand in a very firm manner. After that we snapped photos with the first lady, did I mention she wears a TON of makeup? Holy cow. Also talked briefly to his daughter Barbara bush, and she is totally an Olympic fan, and was curious about my sport and training etc..pretty cool.
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After we met the president we then went to the gymnastics hall which staged all the countries to wait for when they are called for to march in the parade of athletes. By this point we got some boxed lunches that included two cookies, a coke, three pieces of white bread and that’s it. Kinda rough, I’d say. In the gymnastics hall it was crazy hot and Sarah and I hung outside until we could handle the hear of the stadium seating inside the hall. We where amused by the water bottle cooler baracade that the NBA players had to protect them from crazy fans. We end up going back to the seating and we find a seat way in the very front, basically in denmark’s territory. After about 2 minutes Lebron James sit’s down right next to me, and he’s like what’s up….I was like did Lebron James just sit down right next to me.??!! We ended up talking for about 10 minutes about the NBA, China, US fans and how cool it was to be an Olympian. He said were all the same, fighting for the same country enjoying all the experience we could. Big change from the attitude the US basketball team had in Athens when they completely ignored the rest of the team and made it look silly. Supposedly in their contracts they had to attend opening ceremonies and participate in all things every other athlete would get without special treatment. Although they were still staying in the intercontinental hotel in Beijing, so I am sure they weren’t suffering to bad with the village hard beds! But funny enough after the opening cermonies and everybody is trying to get on a bus, I see Kobe Bryant as well looking for room on a bus as well..pretty amusing to say the least.
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The USA team gets called at about 9:40 and we then hurry up and wait outside, and there are tons of fans outside screaming and yelling with police everywhere blocking off crazy fans. Was a unique experience to say the least. While outside we continued to sweat profusely and was sure glad I brought all the water with me. We were already soaked through on the dress shirt and was trying to fan ourselves so we wouldn’t pass out..luckily we were Olympic athletes.
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Entering the stadium was awesome, the bright lights blind you and we could here the chant of U-S-A., U-S-A, when we entered the stadium, along with 85K people screaming and yelling. I won’t ever forget those moments, and I taped them as well! I found out all the cameras where on the outside of the marching circle so I stood just next to the synchronized swilmmiling team because I knew they’d get Tv time. Sure enough my friends from home sent me TV shots of me waving, what an experience. After the parade we settled in the center of the stadium and watched the rest of the show. It was super hot at that point, US teams started getting super tired and kept asking each other for water..I kept mine secret. Hey I was thirsty. We could feel the heat off the flame when they lit the Olympic caldron, totally amazing to watch first hand. Also cool was my dad was able to get an opening ceremony ticket and really enjoyed the moments!
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Each day the windsurfers would do practice races, some pushed hard, some pushed lighter. The Korean guy was super fast then, and won most of the practice races. I had some top 2 races as well and felt like my form was on, or atleast in there with the best guys. I was excited and I would alternate days sailing so that I had max recovery and built a solid peak for the games. Windsurfing is the only class in the sailing program that allows pumping of the sail in all conditions. This makes it an endurance event with our heart rates pegged at near max the entire 35-55 minute race. This requires tons of training in this “tour de sail” board race over 9 days and separates us uniquely from the rest of sailing. Not to mention windsurfers usually start much younger and end their careers as windsurfers as well. It’s a very lively and passionate group and there is much team work between foreign teams because the skills take so long to learn. I checked my start list for the games, 22 out of the 36 were 2nd or 3rd time Olympians, making me the minority. 15 of the guys competing were European or world champions and made this fleet one of the most competitive and developed fleets out of the sailing classes. But I always loved how hard this aspect of sailing was, if your not fit enough, your not smart enough, if your not smooth enough in technique your sluggish in balance or coordination. Call it many things, but I’d consider myself part gymnast, part staged event cyclist, part sailing and I love each of the daunting challenges it contains.
Find something you love and go after it with all of your heart.
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