For my Week 12 featured inspiring person – my sister Kim. A moral compass for me and a constant source of inspiration in my life. Love you, Kim!
http://blog.changemyselfchangetheworld.com/?page_id=2285
Start Date of Body For Life Challenge: January 7
Days Left: 4
During Week 6, I featured Louie Psihoyos, the director of a documentary called The Cove. Psihoyos, who is based in Boulder, gave a talk at a local scuba shop shortly after Todd and I had seen his movie on the plane ride home from Bonaire. See feature here.
The Cove just won an Academy Award for Best Documentary! If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. I never used to be crazy about documentaries in general but either they are growing on me or they are just getting better.
Larissa Latynina (1934 – present) – gymnast
Larissa Latynina holds the record for the most number of total medals in the history of the Olympics with nine gold, five silver, and four bronze for a total of 18. The Russian-Ukrainian gymnast won a medal in every Olympic event she competed in during three Olympic Games except one. On the balance beam in 1956 she came in fourth. She is the only woman with nine Olympic gold medals, a record that ties Mark 
Spitz, Carl Lewis, and Paavo Nurmi, second only to Michael Phelps. (Phelps has 16 total medals: 14 gold and 2 bronze). Latynina is now 75 years old and lives in her estate near the town Semenovskoye, Moscow region.
Jesse Owens (1913-1980) – runner
Jesse Owens tied the world record in the 100-yard dash during a track meet in high school. In college, as an African-American, he travelled with his team but was required eat in black-only restaurants and sleep in black-only hotels. Despite winning a record of eight individual NCAA championships in 2 years that still stands, he was never awarded a scholarship and had to work part-time to pay for school. During the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth, a feat named by NBC announcer Bob Costas as the best athletic achievement since 1850. In 1936 Owens competed for the US in the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Adolf Hitler had used the games to show the world a resurgent Nazi Germany. By allowing 
only members of the Aryan race to compete for Germany, Hitler hoped to demonstrate racial superiority. During those games, Owens won four gold medals, a performance unequalled for almost 50 years until Carl Lewis won medals in the same events in 1984.
The Olympic Games throughout history is a wealth of amazing stories of people who dedicate their lives to a single goal and overcome the odds to realize their dreams. This week I will feature athletes from different sports in different generations. If you think of someone who should be mentioned in such a tribute please feel free to let me know. I wish I could include them all.
Today’s feature is speed skater Apolo Ohno.
TODAY’S CHALLENGE was to do something creative to kick off the project. Unfortunately, a dry throat and aching muscles kept me up last night and I woke up too sick to do much.
However, my suffering inspired my husband Todd and I to buy a new bed. We dragged ourselves to Select Comfort and laid around in Sleep Number beds all afternoon. The result was the perfect complement to the “Change Myself†phase of the project – the promise of a better night’s sleep. It should arrive in two weeks!
