Saturday, September 12, 2009

Speaking at the Olympic Training Center

I was the keynote speaker at the International Association of High Performance Training Centers in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center.

The participants at the IAHPTC convention were either directors or owners of High Performance Training Centers. Their mission is to provide Olympic-level athletes state of the art training facilities. My topic was “Leadership in Sports.”

It was great to be back in Colorado Springs at the USOTC. I spent a good bit of my career with USA Basketball training there. Prior to the Olympics in 1996, we used the facilities as our home base for 18 months (when we were not traveling all over the planet!).

When I arrived at the auditorium to speak, the 200 or so participants were in the middle of a session. I took a deep breath as I looked across the room. One word can sum it up — somber. I had to give myself a pep talk — “just have energy!” I love Paula Abdul’s advice to performers: "have passion and energy, that matters more than what you are doing.”

Passion and energy are the keys to a successful talk for me, too. As soon as I got the group interacting, they were fantastic! We had a great time especially when we shared ideas on “life after sports.” I got to meet some incredible people, namely Marcus Vinicius Freire, CEO of The Brazilian Olympic Committee, and others from Thailand, Uganda, and South Africa. It was a wonderful event!

With the Ugandan Directors

With the Thailand Directors

IAHPTC Owners and Directors

2 comments:

iluvazzi_8 said...

There's no reason to get nervous before you do a talk, Jennifer. You always do a wonderful job. In fact, you seem to be successful in anything you do. What's the worst thing that's happened? You had to re-flip a coin? If I get nervous before my band plays at a gig (I play the drums) I just think to myself "It's just like practice, only with more people there. I can do it at practice, I can do it now".

Susan Gossner said...

It's so awesome how you are able to get the audience involved and participating! Living in C.S., I know several people at the OTC - one's a neighbor and another's a friend from MOM's Club. I am working to get them involved with USANA and educating them on your USANA story. THANK YOU for speaking here!! Hope the weather will be better for you next time you visit. Unfortuately, Pikes Peak was veiled in clouds!