Goals

Achievement and greatness come in many forms. You never know where the next champion will come from.

I had just finished getting my fantasy football fix when the next program involving weightlifting came on. I paused because besides being a sports guy in general, I really enjoy individual achievement. As one of my boyz says, this is the varsity.

I was even more intrigued when I discovered that the first event involved women. I would just have to miss the kickoff of today’s football games.

In the dead lift competition, what you must do is lift the designated weight off the ground initially and then lift it above your head and hold it for a designated period. But you got to hear the story first.

Andrea Thompson from Briton was a twenty something back in 2013 who stated in an interview that she could not even walk up a flight of stairs before getting short of breath. Later that year, her sister asked her to be a bridesmaid for her wedding. Wanting to get in shape for the wedding, the two signed up for Cross Fit sessions. By the time of her sister’s wedding in July of next year, she had dropped from a size 20 to a size 14. From there, she signed up with a personal training for twice weekly sessions. Within a year, she was competing in strongest women competitions. She won that competition in 2018.

Trick footage withstanding, I saw her in a 2016 YouTube video pulling a truck.

Fast forward to 2020. Ms. Thompson set her third world record this year by successfully deadlifting 280kg. That’s 616 pounds. She even improved on her record by then lifting 290kg (636 pounds).

And I saw her do that with my own eyes.  

To paraphrase Jaime Foxx from the movie “Ray”, “You know what I like individual achievements? The stories, man…” 

Soldier

I talk all the time about how this is a sports blog. I try to use this as a tool for educating as well as an escape from the day to day things called life. You never know how sports can be part of American life and history. While Jim Brown is considered one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, he is also considered one of the greatest lacrosse players in collegiate history while at Syracuse. The entertainer Prince played junior varsity basketball as a freshman while in high school. His coach at the time said he was an excellent player for his size (5’ 2”).

You know the rest of that story.

And then there is the story of Doris Miller. A native of Waco Texas, Miller played fullback in high school. A month before his 20^th birthday, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He earned a promotion to Mess Attendant Second Class. The significance of this is that this position was one of the few ratings open at the time to black sailors. In 1940, he was transferred to the battleship West Virginia where he became the ship’s heavyweight boxing champion.

On December 7^th, 1941, his ship came under heavy fire from the infamous attack. During the attack, Miller helped to save the life of his superior officer, attacked the enemy by using anti-aircraft machine guns (even though he had never used one before) and according to the actual ship’s Action Report, “unquestionably saving the lives of a number of people who might otherwise have been lost.”

Miller was presented with the Navy Cross, at the time the third-highest Navy award for gallantry during combat, after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. The citation reads as follows:

For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.

The Navy will be creating a new supercarrier that will be called the USS Dorie Miller. It will be the first supercarrier named for an enlisted sailor and the first to be named after an African American. Dr. Regina Akers, a historian with the Naval History and Heritage Command summed it up best:

"Despite the fact that he was denied certain basic constitutional rights because of the racism in our society at the time, Dorie didn't let that deter him," she said. "It didn't lessen his patriotism, his love for country, his determination to serve and to give the Navy his very best, and that says a lot."

It sure does.