Say Hello
By any standards, his are no ordinary arms. Popeye would envy those forearms. His muscles have their own muscles. He is cloaked in a way that says “give me my space.”
Before I even can look for an escape route, he walks straight my way and plants his feet in front of me.
He flips back the hoodie on his coat.
Next, the giant headphones come off.
He removes his oversized sunglasses.
And, he whips off his wool cap.
With the disguise gone, Vavra Hradilek breaks out his giant smile along with his matching giant arms to give to me a bear-hug.
“Hello, Joe. Thank you for being here,” Vavra says.
Greeting me is probably the last thing he should be doing at this moment.
We are minutes away from his semi-final race run at the 2013 Canoe Slalom World Championships on his home course in Prague.
Here, thousands of Czech fans file into the high-rising bleachers next to the whitewater channel to do one thing — see Vavra win. A year earlier, he brought home a Silver Medal from the 2012 Olympic Games in London. He is a superstar to all the hometown friends, neighbors, and distant family members who call themselves fans.
There is even more pressure than the human kind. Vavra has been made *the face* of these World Championships. His image is everywhere: social media ads, television, newspapers, storefronts, venue & street banners, billboards, and printed event programs. This country has pinned its expectations upon his muscles which sit atop more muscles.
And for him to get a bit of distance on the biggest day of this race, he has donned the accoutrements of “give me some space.”
I can empathize with the disguise. I wish I had one myself.
I was self-conscious on my walk into this World Championship venue. As the CEO of the association that oversees competitive paddlesports in the United States, there would be high-expectations of me.
How would people from my long-time whitewater racing community see me today?
As part of the oppression?
As part of the bureaucracy?
As part of the politics?
As a part of the problem?
Greeting me is the last thing any typical athlete would be doing just prior to their race run down a world class whitewater slalom course.
But there he is, and here I am — grasped in a bear hug accompanied with big back slaps.
What happened next? Vavra delivered exactly what the Czech fans came to see — a dramatic win in a high-stakes game.
And he simply used the moment before climbing into his race boat to say, “Hello” and “Thanks for being here.”
With gratitude,
Joe
Ps — Do you know somebody who would benefit from reading this post? Consider sharing Say Hello using THIS LINK and the hashtag #SayHello.
Hi, I’m Joe, the owner of 5 With Joe Performance Coaching. My clients are leaders, organizations, and teams who utilize my Olympic Gold Medal performance strategies and 40 years of navigating whitewater river rapids to streamline decision making and actions when engaged in complicated river currents of business and life.
The best way to interact with me is through Sunday Morning Joe, my weekly newsletter that explores the art of improving performance, overcoming challenge, and aligning with purpose for Sunday readers in search of more depth and motivation. Subscribe HERE for free.
