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Wednesday, May 31, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Olympic champion shares with Sisters High School students
By Charlie Kanzig
Correspondent
What do you do as an
encore when you are con-
sidered the world’s greatest
athlete and own two Olympic
gold medals, a world record,
and numerous other titles?
For Ashton Eaton, shar-
ing with young people what
he has learned through his
athletic career is part of his
“second act.” Eaton dropped
by Sisters High School
on Friday, May 26, for an
informal talk with about 40
students about striving for
improvement through work-
ing toward a goal or idea.
“You don’t have to
achieve the goal to find suc-
cess,” he said, after drawing
an illustration on the board
while explaining his philoso-
phy. He drew a triangle with
the top point being the goal
he was chasing. The base of
the triangle represented the
loads of trial and error along
the way while continually
working toward the goal.
The soft-spoken Eaton,
who grew up in Central
Oregon and attended
M o u n t a i n Vi e w H i g h
School before starring at
the University of Oregon
and going on to Olympic
glory, told a story about how
as a seven- or eight-year-
old playing outside his La
Pine home he used a pair of
sticks to measure how far he
could jump. He would jump
from one stick to the other,
ever increasing the distance
between the two until he
could no longer improve.
His long jumping career may
have started that day — he
has a lifetime best of just over
27 feet — but he uses the
story to illustrate the notion
of continual self-improve-
ment through analysis, fail-
ure, observation, belief in
self, and determination.
The visit was arranged by
Sisters Athletic Club’s Tate
Metcalf, who coached Eaton
in high school and remains
a close friend. Eaton and his
wife, Brianne Theisen-Eaton,
a bronze Olympic medalist
for Canada in the heptathlon,
are in the first year of their
retirement from track and
field.
Eaton offered more stories
from his youth.
“I also loved the Ninja
Turtles and wanted to be
one, and one day my mother
suggested I try martial arts,”
he said. “I remember the
instructor suggested I try for
a black belt, which is one
of my earliest memories of
someone offering me a goal.
“But with my goals, I
never said ‘I am going to
do that for sure.’ I simply
always said I was going to
try, including when it came
to making the Olympics.”
Another important piece
to goal-setting for Eaton is
telling others rather than
keeping them to yourself.
“As far as school goes,
you are not here for this
place, this place is here for
you,” he said. “You have the
keys to the building … you
have the right to go to teach-
ers, parents, coaches and ask
‘I am trying to do this, but
how do I get there?’
“You belong in the driv-
er’s seat,” he said.
When asked about the
mental aspect of his athletic
career in competition Eaton
said he ultimately found that
actually imagining worst-
case scenarios helped him
cope with times when things
didn’t go to plan. In the
10-event decathlon, a poor
performance in one event can
affect what happens in the
following events either posi-
tively or negatively, depend-
ing on how you cope with the
situation, he explained.
He also explained that
self-reflection — “what can I
change to make that better?”
— was key, whether he won
or lost.
He remembers fondly that
being in the dining hall at
the Olympics with athletes
from throughout the world
and from all political and
religious backgrounds, made
him see how he wishes the
world could be.
“That’s really the cool-
est part,” he said. “For two
weeks, people are there from
everywhere and for those two
weeks, it’s all good. That’s
why the Olympics are so
great.”
One student asked how
he dealt with other athletes
trying to intimidate him in
competition.
“I can’t really do anything
about the other competitors,
but it does help me to see
them as people just like me,”
he said.
As to training, his advice
was to listen to your body
because it is easy to think
that more is better.
“You have to be smart and
know what your body is tell-
ing you,” he said.
Following his presenta-
tion, Eaton remained for
pictures and small talk:
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PHOTO BY CHARLIE KANZIG
Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton talked with Sisters High School
students about the pursuit of goals last week.
the world’s greatest ath-
lete taking time with three
dozen teenagers, inspiring
them toward their own
dreams.