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Beating the Odds
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16184 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1989 |
2,642 Words |
| Author
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Bob Phillips
Bob Phillips is a contributing editor for Scholastic
Publications in New York. |
"When life kicks you, let it kick you forward. You cannot change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails," said coach Kay Yow. Last September, she and her hopelessly confident women's basketball team sailed their ship to the top of the world.
This is the story of Kay Yow and two other athletes--Rocky Bleier, and Jim Abbott--and their ability to overcome physical hardships. Just what is it that separates the achiever from the nonachiever? Most psychologists will agree that it is the ability to turn temporary setbacks into positive experiences, to learn something from adversity, to grow. Perhaps no endeavor better lends itself to the not-so-trivial pursuit of achievement than athletics.
Kay Yow
September 29, 1988. Kay Yow is standing along with her players and assistant coaches at the medal stand in Seoul, South Korea, accepting a gold medal. This was the only gold medal the United States would earn in basketball in 1988, for the highly regarded mem's team had been trounced by the Soviet Union in the semifinal game and had to settle for a bronze.
Tears of pride filled Yow's eyes. Very few "experts" picked the American women to win a medal of any sort. Not only was the U.S. program thought to be light-years behind that of the Soviets, the Yugoslavs, the Brazilians, and the Chinese, but three of America's best players--Clarissa Davis, Cheryl Miller, and Vicki Orr--were forced to mass miss the games because of injuries. Another American star, Sue Wicks, had left the team before it reached Seoul citing personal reasons. But somehow, Yow, a small-town girl from Gibsonville, North Carolina, a state where love of basketball ranks just behind love of God and country, had managed to lead her ragtag bunch to the promised land.
Few watching at home realized the magnitude of her tears, for Yow had not only overcome the best basketball teams in the world, she had also just fought--and won--a battle against the toughest foe she has encountered in her forty-seven years: breast cancer.
In April 1988, before the start of a demanding worldwide scouting tour, Yow, head women's coach at North Carolina State University and coach-designate for the U.S. Olympic team, reluctantly agreed to a complete physical examination at the insistance of a close friend. It was her first checkup in five years.
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