OLDS — You can achieve your goals if you do three things, three-time Olympic bobsledder Neville Wright told the crowd during the second annual Broncos Scholarship Breakfast.
He said those three things are to believe in yourself and your dream and don’t listen to others who say you can’t do it, work hard to accomplish that goal and have the heart to keep going when you face obstacles or disappointments.
The event, a fundraiser for the college’s athletic scholarship program, was held Feb. 8 at the Olds College Alumni Centre and attracted more than 200 people.
Wright, who now lives in Edmonton, was the guest speaker. He mentors Broncos athletes under the Head To Head program in which Olympians are paired with young athletes.
Wright said he’d overcome obstacles all his life, including being bullied, overcoming a speech impediment and competing at the international level in track and field before being recruited for bobsledding.
The recruitment took some time. Wright admitted he wasn’t anxious to take up bobsledding initially.
“I asked a friend that was doing it. They said to me bobsledding was similar to someone walking up the highest hill they could find, putting you in a garbage can and kicking you down the hill,” he said, sparking laughter.
“I was like, ‘I love roller-coaster rides, but I don’t know if I’ll love this one. Ice, fast speeds, the cold.’ But eventually I took that leap, and it was the best decision I could make.”
Wright said he gave himself the confidence and drive to make the bobsled team by creating and living by this phrase: “I can, I do, I will.”
“You say that to yourself and you’d be surprised how powerful words can be in your life,” he said.
“I trained in the summer, made the team in October of 2017 and within less than five months being in the sport, I made it to my first Olympic Games. And that’s in a sport that I knew nothing about.”
Wright said that phrase not only enables you to succeed in athletics but in life in general.
However, he stressed it’s not just about building yourself up, but also those around you when they’re facing adversity.
Wright said he eventually realized that even as a child struggling with a speech impediment he was already practising the “I can, I do, I will” philosophy.
“For each of us that go through things, we don’t even realize how strong we are, how resilient we are, what we have inside of us; thinking that, ‘how am I going to overcome this, how am I going to do this?’ You already have it inside of you,” he said.
“I can, I do, I will is already there; it’s just for you to find it.”
The crowd gave Wright a standing ovation.
All proceeds from the event will go toward Broncos scholarships and student-athlete services on campus.
