In corresponding with Allie (thank you, Facebook), I learned the feature I mentioned in this previous Blog item was broadcast on the Big Ten Network, not ESPN. The feature is five minutes and twenty three seconds worth watching. Here's the link. It's not exactly a direct link. Look for Allie in the light blue leotard...

Brian

Allie Southard broke her back in the summer of 2007 training on the uneven parallel bars. Doctors told her she would never compete as a gymnast again. That's the beginning of the story.

Allie Southard Penn State Gymnast In March 2008, after months of rehabilitation and training, she vaulted onto the balance beam -- the most intimidating of all gymnastic apparatuses -- and did an exhibition performance in front of her Penn State University teammates, competitors from Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers, and a gym packed with fans. She scored a 9.675 on a 10-point scale. Her teammates swarmed her after the performance, a showing that earned her the award for the most inspirational performance of the meet.

Steve Shepard, her coach, says, "Allie is an inspiration to her team. She defied all odds...."

She competed this weekend at the NCAA championship meet in Lincoln, Nebraska, the same place she performed that doctor-defying, inspiring exhibition. I was running on a treadmill at the YMCA when I saw her profiled on TV on ESPN. She got emotional talking about that moment when she was embraced by her teammates after that first performance. Throughout the interview, though, she was mostly unassuming. She was asked the inevitable questions about how and why she was able to come so far despite being told she couldn't. She said, everything that happens, happens for a reason...

I don't know if anyone or anything really has control of making master plans to test and develop us. But I believe without doubt that everything that happens presents an opportunity for us to respond, and how we respond makes all the difference.

By the way, Allie scored a 9.8 on the balance beam this weekend, tied for the highest score in that event for the Penn State team. And she's got another year of competition left, and hopefully plenty of other opportunities for making good stuff happen that others don't believe is possible.

Make a Difference,

Brian
Blog: Brian@GrowthWorks -- Life, Learning & Leadership
Website: GrowthWorks Inc.