Mute All the Noise...

Fred Kerley is an Olympic Medalist and Word Champion Track & Field Sprinter. He doesn't say much to the media but who needs words when your talents speak to your greatness across the globe?

I was watching Fred compete in the 200M at the 2023 Wanda Diamond League in Doha, Qatar. The lineup was stacked with some of the world's greatest Sprinters. Pause...typically, I watch sports events on mute because of the analysts/commentators. They push their opinions and negative views on the audience, and we start to judge these AMAZING athletes based on someone's perceptions.

Back to the story...I'm watching the Men get set without realizing I forgot to press mute. The gun goes off, and the Men get out of the blocks. All I see is a group of Men giving the world their absolute best step by step. As a Marathon and Ultra Marathon Runner, I know each race is independent of the others. You have to live in that race and be in the moment regardless of your training efforts.

Fred is in the middle of the pack until they hit the straightaway. He activated another gear that looked like turbo compared to the other Sprinters. You would be happy if you were Fred or anyone watching this, right? Not quite the feeling I got from the analysts. OMG, they critiqued his entire performance and talked about how bad he was from the start through the curve. They even went as far as to say why he had such a "bad start".

How do they know when they're not Fred!?! What if that was his strategy the whole time? What if he knows he has some starting challenges and he's working to improve each race? What if that was his best 200M according to the Man himself, Fred? What if he is beyond proud of his achievement and could care less about the start? What if the analysts/commentators would've congratulated him and celebrated his victory without any negative remarks? What if???

Don't let anyone's perception steal your moment. Mute all the noise and noisemakers. You are the Champion and that's all that matters, so celebrate!!!