Benjamin Franklin famously said ‘from adversity comes opportunity.’ Apart from those of an older generation who have lived through times of War that quote has probably never rung so true as in 2020.
Incredibly studies have found that adverse childhood experiences while having a negative impact on the lives of many can also be the driving force amongst many athletes who reach the pinnacle in their sport, or sports.
Canadian Clara Hughes is just one example. She is one of a rare breed to have competed at both a Winter and Summer Olympic Games. She is one of only five people to have podium finishes in the Winter and Summer versions of the Games, and is the only person ever to have won multiple medals in both.
Clara was born in the city of Winnipeg on 27 September 1972. Her father was an alcoholic, and by the time she was nine years old her parents had separated. At the age of twelve she and her sister had taken to the streets and were drinking and doing drugs, by sixteen she had stopped going to school. As she said in an interview earlier this year “I was drinking a lot, binge drinking, passing out under street posts. I just wanted to self-destruct.”
Her life took a dramatic turn in 1988 when flicking through the channels on a television she paused on the Winter Olympics to watch the 1984 1,000 and 1,500m Olympic champion Gaétan Boucher attempt to defend his 1,500m title in his last-ever Olympic race. It was a moment that would change her life.
Boucher finished ninth. She watched how distraught he was and the hurt he was feeling resonated with her. She has said that this was the moment that she knew she would be an Olympian.
So she started skating, speed-skating, almost immediately. However a year later a cycling coach approached her and encouraged her to try cycling. Her power, determination and hard work soon saw her on the national team. Her rise was fast, and she participated at the 1990, 1994 and 2002 Commonwealth Games. Success was not immediate, but she won gold in the time road trial in 2002, bronze in the points race on the velodrome also in 2002, and silver in the 50 km team time trial in 1994.
At the age of 23 she was selected to attend her first Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.
Here she would collect two bronze medals. In the individual road race, she was with the leaders in the final sprint for the line, but was pipped by France’s Jeannie Longo, who finished ahead of Italy’s Imelda Chiappa. Twelve days later, she was third again, this time in the time trial. She finished just 0.13 seconds behind silver medallist Longo and less than a second behind the Russian gold medallist Zulfiya Zabirova.
These were the second and the third medals ever won in road cycling by a Canadian athlete; Steve Bauer winning a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics,
Post Atlanta, and despite being the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in road cycling, Hughes fell into a deep depression. She clawed her way out of that dark place to win her place on the Canadian team for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. It wasn’t to be, there was no place on the podium this time around. She finished 43rd in the road race, and sixth in the time trial.Yet these games were an epiphany as she explained to the Olympic website “Those races to this day are probably the two I’m most proud of; because it taught me it’s not about medals, it is about excellence and this beautiful thing called ‘trying.'”
This realisation convinced her to head back onto the ice. She returned to speed-skating at the age of 28. Many told her it could not be done. Yet Hughes once again showed the spirit that burned inside.
Within seven weeks of returning to the ice she was invited to join the national team. Three months later and she had achieved her first top 10 finish at the World Championships. Then incredibly just 17 months after switching sports, she was participating at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Not only was she participating but she was again on the podium. Here she won bronze in the 5,000m.
Two years later in 2004 she would become the World Champion speed skater over 5,000m. Another Two years after that at the Turin Winter Olympic Games she won silver in the team pursuit, but in the 5000m she would claim the Gold medal.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in the history of speed skating. Somebody who has not grown up with skates, who doesn’t understand how to skate like learning from when you’re a little child.” Was how Norway’s four-time Olympic champion Johan Olav Koss summed up her incredible performance.
At one stage Hughes also held the world record for the 10,000m. In 2010 she was selected to be the flag bearer for the Canadian team at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. She had come a long way from being a kid who literally slept on the streets! Once again she climbed onto the podium, she won a bronze medal this time in the 5,000 metres. A race which was the final Olympic speed skating race of her career.
Yet for those who thought she was finished, it was time to think again. In November 2010 Hughes announced at the age of 38 a return to cycling and an intention to compete at the London 2012 Olympics.
If anyone had any doubts as to whether this was a realistic prospect they were soon believing in Hughes again. At the 2011 Pan American Championships, Hughes won the individual time trial and road race. She didn’t just win, she won both events by a big margin. In the May of 2011, she came first in the Tour of the Gila, winning two stages along the way. In June 2012, she achieved her goal and was selected along with three others to be part of Canada’s 2012 London Olympic cycling team.
There was no podium finish this time as Hughes finished 32nd in the road race and 5th in the road time trial. However that would not have bothered her as her mindset had changed since that first appearance in 1992.
Not surprisingly away from the road and the rink she has received many honours from universities, sporting bodies and the Canadian Government.
In 2010 she was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. While in 2012, The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) announced Hughes as one of twenty women selected to the Most Influential Women in Sport and Physical Activity, she has been recognised in this area on three occasions. Then in 2014, Hughes was honoured with the Meritorious Service Cross (Civil Division) to go with being made a Member of the Order of Canada back in 2007.
In 2015, an official opening ceremony was held for a school to be named after Hughes. The school, the Clara Hughes Public School Opened in September 2014 and is located in Oshawa, Ontario. At the opening ceremony, Hughes was quoted as saying, “It is without exception the greatest honour that I have in my life, to have my name here.”
However having had her own mental health issues Clara Hughes continues to try and help in this area. She is the National Spokesperson for the Bell ‘Let’s Talk Mental Health’ initiative, and since 2013 she has initiated annual bike rides across Canada in order to raise awareness about mental health.
In 2015, a documentary was aired on this remarkable woman called “Clara’s Big Ride.” In the same year her memoir, “Open Heart, Open Mind”, was published.
Her journey really was from the gutter to the top of the world. She rose out of adversity to be able to call herself a World record holder, a World Champion and an Olympic Champion. She not only grasped the opportunities that came her way but clung onto them.
Not surprisingly she summed up her journey best when she told the IOC, “It’s like where I come from I should never have gone on to do what I did. But if I can do it, so can anyone. I was a kid who was transformed because of sport, and it fundamentally shifted the direction of my life. It’s given me a life, and it’s something I’ll never forget.”
While the world will hopefully never forget Clara Hughes.
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