4 Inspiring Olympic Women

Of course I'm rooting for Team USA during the Olympics, but some athletes with the most incredible stories come from other parts of the world. Sometimes I want these underdogs to win--even though they've probably trained just as much as all the other competitors, they've undergone more personal struggles.


Since this year's Olympics are being called "The Year of the Women", I've highlighted some great women athletes who are competing from all around the world.


1. Zoe Smith, Team Great Britain, Weightlifting

Link to article

Smith is a British teenager who has been targeted and bullied on Twitter because of her "manly" choice of Olympic sport. She has eloquently replied to the bullying tweets, but opens up in the article about issues women weightlifters like herself have faced since the beginning of the event in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.


2. Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, Team Malaysia, Shooting

Link to article

Nur Suryani is the Olympic's first women to be eight months pregnant during the games. Even though her sport is shooting and puts her in little danger of hurting her baby, she has received harsh criticism from others telling her she is selfish for jeopardizing her child's health. Nur Suryani strongly fights back her critics by saying that, as the mother of her child, no one else should be telling her what to do.


3. Wojdan Shaherkani, Team Saudi Arabia, Judo

No photo--picture found here

Link to article

Shaherkani is part of the history-making Saudi Arabia team, which for the first time allowed women to compete. At the time of writing, she is facing problems with the Judo federation, who will not allow her to compete unless she removes her hijab for the event. This contradicts the statement they made earlier this summer, saying she could wear the hijab and wouldn't have to mix with men for the competition.

4. Tahmina Kohistani, Team Afghanistan, Track & Field

Link to article

In the article, Kohistani talks about the problems she faced trying to train for the Olympics back in her home country of Afghanistan, where women aren't very well accepted as athletes. She was heavily criticized by crowds of men and women catcalling and yelling at her whenever she practiced at Kabul Stadium back home. Instead of backing down, she continued training and made it to the Olympics.


Have you all seen any inspiring women or heard any great stories from the Olympics so far?


P.S. Is anybody having trouble avoiding spoilers about the Olympics? I swear, I try my hardest not to see the results of the events that haven't aired on NBC yet, but they end up being plastered everywhere without any spoiler warnings, even on major American news sites. Oh, tape delay...

"It's a Quote Kind of Day" + Crazy Dog T-Shirts Giveaway Winner

Giveaway winner at the bottom of this post!

Source: gthegentleman.tumblr.com via Becky on Pinterest

Today was one of those days where I spent an hour on Pinterest pinning any quote that I could remotely apply to my life. Ever had one of those days where you just go on a pinning rampage?

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I couldn't come up with anything good to post about today so you're lucky enough to get something personal from me. As you may or may not have seen, I'm working on research with a professor and some other students this summer this summer, using fish as our model organisms. It's completely out of my league, something I've never done before.

Source: thesilverpen.com via Becky on Pinterest

It's taken me awhile to get used to the lab and all the protocols, but I'm getting better each and every day. It's been tough for me because I am a perfectionist and, if I don't get something right the first time, I get a little frustrated with myself. It's definitely something I have to get over, but I'm getting better at it.

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So that's why it's been a quote-kind-of-day. Because all of the above quotes keep reminding me why I'm doing all this: to become a doctor. To help people. To save people's lives.

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And, in the meantime, being able to inject fish eggs with recombinant DNA is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right?



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CRAZY DOG T-SHIRTS GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Thank you all for entering! I used a very sophisticated way to choose the winner: I wrote down all your entries in a notebook and numbered them.

I used the random number generator and it said that the winner is Jennifer Hiles! Congrats Jennifer. I'm sending you an email and you have to respond in the next seven days to claim your prize :)

The Dalai Lama Meets Chicago

Somehow I forgot to blog about one of the most inspiring experiences of my short 20-year-old life. On Thursday, April 26th, 2012, the Dalai Lama came to my university to speak to all of us.

Getting tickets was a huge hassle. They opened up to students in March and sold out in HOURS. I was lucky enough to snag a ticket, but many people weren't. For the $10 I paid for the ticket, my seat was incredible...I was closer to His Holiness than some of the $100 seats.

Before the Dalai Lama came, I participated in a book club where we read one of his books, A True Kinship of Faiths. The Dalai Lama decided to come to our university because, although we are a Jesuit Catholic university, we have a huge population of Muslim and Jewish students. We're big on diversity. In this book club, a bunch of us with all different faiths discussed how His Holiness preached for more than tolerance of different religions: he preaches for acceptance.

Our school was all decked out with banners welcoming the Dalai Lama. In the words of many of my fellow students, we've never seen Loyola do something this "legit" before.

I was one of the first people in line (though in the picture it doesn't seem like it--you should see the people BEHIND me). I skipped classes to see the Dalai Lama because, let's face it, I'm sure his speech was a lot more inspiring than learning about the extracellular cell matrix or The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Via Loyola University Chicago

The Dalai Lama welcoming the president of Loyola and giving him a ceremonial white sash.

Via Loyola University Chicago

He spoke for around an hour about interfaith and how our generation needs to promote acceptance of others. He's wearing a Loyola visor in the picture, which our university president gave him. Upon receiving it he said "I've gotten a lot of these from a lot of different universities. Someday I should put them [for sale] on the internet...they will make a lot of money!" His laugh is absolutely adorable. 

Via Loyola University Chicago

That's his translator by his side, who helped him when he struggled with a few words. I think he was confused by how big the chair was. At one point he invited our university president, who was standing the whole time, to sit down next to him! 

It was the most inspiring two hours of my life, probably more-so because I read the Dalai Lama's book ahead of time. I think he spoke about something truly important to our generation. With so much diversity in Chicago, he spoke a message that does not apply only to religions and faith, but to cultures as well.

I feel so lucky that I was able to take part in this!

--Becky