This letter was emailed to us from Julie Nichols who is the Mother of Mental Management client and Olympian Archer, Brady Ellison. Brady is not only ranked as one of the best in his sport but according to this letter he also acts like a winner off the field too. We hope you will enjoy this note.
Dear Mrs. Nichols,
I wanted to take the opportunity to write to you about your son, Brady, and our experience meeting him on a recent trip we took. We hope that you will pass this along to him and everyone that he represents. We found his website when I googled him.
My husband and I recently did a tour of Great Britain and one of the stops was in Edinburgh, Scotland. While we were there, we happened upon the Archery World Cup. We noticed several of the athletes were from the USA, as were we, so we decided to stop and watch for a bit. The match we saw was Brady shooting against a gentleman from India, he had us holding our breath as I'm sure he had you doing the same. It was so exciting, we decided to stay and watch his Gold medal match. We were not in the stands, but were watching from above on the gallery outside the museum and cafe. We cheered with all the other spectators up there when he won. We watched the Medal ceremonies and watched his interviews. We noticed that there were quite a few people waiting around where the walkway was blocked off. We overheard a lady (his grandma we learned) say that they were waiting for Brady to walk up. We thought we would try to get a picture with him, after all, it's not everyday you get to meet an Olympian.
Brady finally made his way up the walkway, with you carrying all his trophies and stuff, along with his coach. Wow. What a poised young man you have raised. He spent over a hour and a half, I know because we waited, signing autographs, t-shirts, hats whatever anyone had. He took pictures with anyone who asked. He took the time to talk with everyone and "Thank" them for their support and coming out to watch. He was the great with all the children, who were so in awe, he took the time with each and every one of them and made them feel special. We were waiting our turn and making small talk with one of the spectators, who told us about what Brady had done the day before with an autistic boy. My understanding is the boy came both days with his mom and knew everything about Brady, all his stats. They had met you in line and you had said you would ask Brady to come to the stands and they could get a picture. The gentleman said Brady came to the stands and sat down and talked with the boy for quite some time, took pictures and was very good with him. The gentleman said that was the moment that Brady went from being someone he cheered for to being a hero. We didn't witness that, but we saw how he interacted with everyone when the competition was over. He won over a lot of fans that were for other countries. We heard quite a few of the children say they wanted to be just like Brady when they grew up. That made us chuckle because Brady is not much older than them. It is so refreshing to see an athlete who is a positive role model. We are so often bombarded by the media with all the professional athletes who make the news for drugs or breaking the law, Brady is a breath of fresh air. He took a picture with an old couple (us) and talked with us for a bit. He is a well spoken, humble young man who obviously loves what he does. He made us both proud to be Americans and a little teary. It was a nice unexpected surprise and one of the highlights of our trip.
We will continue to follow Brady, not necessarily because of archery, but because of the wonderful young man who spent hours with his fans. Congratulations to Brady on a fantastic year, we wish him continued success. Congratulations to USA Archery, the USOC and all of Brady's sponsors on having such a fine representative.
Congratulations to you, Mrs. Nichols, on having raised such a poised and wonderful young man. We only spent a short time with him, but he made a lasting impression. We had planned on returning to Great Britain for another trip and now we are looking at going during the London 2012 Olympics to cheer Brady on to Gold.
Congratulations Again - Sincerely, Mary
You never know who will be watching you as you compete for your dreams - so always act like a Champion, win or lose. Because at the end of the day, the people you meet and inspire will mean more than the trophies that gather dust on your mantle.
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