So how does an Olympian prepare mentally for a once-in-a-lifetime event that can literally be over in seconds, but its results will last for the rest of his or her life? Because of my background as the first American Olympic gold medal aerial skier, motivational speaker and author of a much-talked-about inspirational book, I was honored when the U.S. Olympic Committee engaged me to help train the current and upcoming athletes on overcoming challenges, finding motivation, and dealing with these pressures at the Games.

By Davin Colten
There were two big surprises this Thursday night while watching the long program in the men’s free skate finals. One, by having Evan Lysacek win gold without doing a quad. That is preposterous. …

Men’s college basketball is heating up, the Super Bowl is over and “who” might be lingering on retirement. All this in the latest edition from ESPN’s sports guru, Howie Schwab.

As I enter this new decade, I am surprised that I am looking and thinking about the future. For nearly all of the past decade, I literally withdrew from contact with friends of many years, having experienced an unexpected major setback whose ferocity sucked all of the usual resilience from my spirit. For that, I have paid a heavy price from which I may not fully recover.

My reawakening has been marked by hesitant and slow steps of outreach to those I abandoned by my failure to take charge of myself. Writing an occasional article is a part of my recovery process. I may never become the Grandma Moses of writing, but I still have a point of view on a lot of things, including, of course, the main focus of Femmefan: sports in most of its facets.

The Tiger episode has given me two different perspectives.
The first is this:
Tiger’s situation is, in some ways, a take-off of the Wizard of Oz.
He has created an imaginary wall of protection to protect himself from contact with the general masses. From behind that wall Tiger speaks.
Or does he? In reality, only a select few know anything about how or where Tiger is.

Growing old provides an occasional opportunity to reconnect with youngsters who are now adults with families and careers of their own. I’ve lucked out and have now reconnected with 2 such persons whose lives engaged mine decades ago.
The first was with Femmefan‘s creator (a story, perhaps, for another day), and the other with Josie Washington McQuay of the greater Philadelphia area.
Each followed a path of balancing the responsibilities of raising a family, maintaining a professional career and later found challenges and established new, but different, vistas for women in the arena of sports.

I have to apologize to Erica and to my loyal readers. I received a copy of GAMEFACE before the Christmas Holiday and as with all good intentions, life, well, it got in the way.
So, finally, …