About a month ago, we featured a series of blog posts featuring Olympic Athletes and how they manage their emotions in and out of competition. Two athletes we featured were Marti Malloy and Kayla Harrison, both of whom were first time Olympians in the sport of Judo.
Marti competed on Monday July 30 and won a bronze medal in incredible fashion. En route to her bronze, she not defeated the number-two seed from Portugal whom she had never defeated before, but she also threw the defending 2008 Olympic Champion from Italy for full point.
Kayla made history on Thursday August 2 when she became the first USA Judo Athlete (man or woman) to ever win gold at the Olympic Games. In her interview with Humintell, she spoke about the power of positive thinking and visualization:
“I see myself on the podium with a gold medal around my neck, seeing the American flag and hearing our national anthem playing”
That vision is now a reality as Harrison stepped onto the Olympic podium Thursday evening and accepted her gold medal.
Congratulations to both Marti and Kayla for their tremendous accomplishments!