Let the games begin!

DI resident and former Olympic basketball coach talks Summer Games
After a year-long delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s best athletes have come together to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. And while there is concern for the safety of the participants, many fans hope the Summer Games will unite the world in Olympic glory. 
 
“The Olympic Games are very unique and special in that it’s more than just a sporting event, it’s a life experience,” said David Blatt, a former Olympic basketball coach who moved to Daniel Island last year. “The opportunity to interact with so many different people from different places and different schools of thought...it’s an amalgam of emotion and consciousness that crosses all borders.”
 
A dual American and Israeli citizen, Blatt was born in Boston and was a basketball standout at Princeton University before immigrating to Israel, where he played professionally until an injury transitioned him into coaching. For nearly 30 years, he enjoyed a successful coaching career in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Israel and the United States, where he took the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA finals. 
 
But Blatt feels his greatest success was his seven years as head coach of the Russian national team, which he led to the 2007 European Championship, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics, where his team won a bronze medal. In 2014, Blatt was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship which recognizes dignitaries whose efforts help strengthen peace and understanding between nations.
 
“My Olympic experiences went far beyond any athletic or professional achievement and gave a kind of meaning and sense of togetherness and openness that you really can’t find in any other place,” said Blatt. “Just to have been a leader of other Olympians regardless of the result, that is something that I’ll carry with me forever.”
 
Blatt said participating in the Olympics was memorable on many levels, but special highlights included walking in two opening ceremonies, visiting the Great Wall of China during the Beijing Games, and being part of a medal-winning team in London. Although Olympic coaches do not receive medals, Blatt said the experience was more important than the prize.
 
“My medal is in my heart more than anywhere else,” he said. “For me, the idea of being a kind of an ambassador through the world of sport was just as valuable and just as significant as the Olympic medal; I was living and embodying my dream.”
 
For Daniel Island’s Jenny Thompson, the four-time Olympian’s journey began when she was a freshman swimmer at Stanford University. 
 
“I had been recruited by head coach Richard Quick, who had a unique ability to make people believe they could do things they’d never done before,” said Thompson. “Under his tutelage, I went to the Olympic trials in 1992 and ended up breaking the world record in the preliminaries and qualifying for my first Olympics; it was an incredible moment.”
 
Thompson competed in four consecutive Summer Games, traveling to Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004. She won a total of 12 medals, including eight golds, and became one of the most decorated Olympians in history. Thompson said each Olympics were special and unique in their own way.
 
“They were all so different and I was in different stages in my life; my first one I was so young,” she said. “The Olympic village was a city of the best athletes in the world and as a 19-year-old girl, I was in awe. Their physiques are so specialized for their sport, so you’d see these tiny gymnasts and gargantuan Roman wrestlers and basketball players who were a mile high.”
 
Thompson described marching in the opening ceremonies in Atlanta in 1996 as an exhilarating experience, and that was the year she began to realize the notoriety that comes with Olympic stardom. She appeared on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, The Morning Show with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer, and was invited to celebrity events in Hollywood. 
 
After the 2000 Olympics, she appeared on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” where she won $64,000 (half went to charity), Hollywood Squares with Whoopi Goldberg, and The Jay Leno Show. But she passed on the iconic Wheaties cereal box cover in favor of Crispix because Kellogg’s offered more money that helped put Thompson, now an anesthesiologist, through medical school.
 
From a physician’s perspective, Thompson feels concern about merging people from 200 countries into one place during a pandemic. But from a former Olympian’s view, she said she can empathize with the athletes who are at the pinnacle of their career and might not get another chance to compete in the Olympics. And while the lack of spectators is important to help keep athletes safe, Thompson thinks it could impact their performance. 
 
“The crowd really does make a difference...when you hear a roar for your name you get goosebumps and you feel the adrenaline,” said Thompson. “You’re representing your whole country and it’s hard to appreciate that when it’s just a camera and not a crowd right there with you.”
 
When asked if she will be watching the Tokyo Olympics, Thompson said she wouldn’t miss it.
 
“We never have the TV on in our house, but we’ll probably just leave it on for two weeks,” she laughed. “(Husband) Dan and I both love watching the Olympics and we’re raising our boys to enjoy travel and sports and appreciate other cultures, so it all fits in.”
 
Blatt will also be tuned into the excitement of the games. “Why are the Olympics so special to all of us? We grew up being part of the glorious performances and exhibitions of athletic excellence,” he said. “I hope everyone’s able to follow and to enjoy the splendor of the Olympic Games and I wish good health for all the athletes and the citizens of Japan.”
 

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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