By American300 Public Affairs - 08/11/12
 |
| Lodwick climbs up from Nuclear Launch Capsule with USAF Escort Cpt Tubesing - Photo USAF |
Strattford, London- As the Olympic flame is extinguished this Sunday, marking the close to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, one Olympian has already set his sights on the next Olympic caldron to be lit in Sochi, Russia.
For five-time Olympian Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the journey to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi marks the potential for an American first - becoming the first American skier to compete in six Olympic Winter Games.
“I tried to stop after my fourth Olympic Games in Torino, Italy; however, every ounce of my being, of my sole, told me to keep going,” says the blonde 32-year old father of two.
On the top level of international competition for nearly two decades, Lodwick knows how to train and train hard. Due to a number of coaches over the span of his international athletics, he also knows that when he trains, eats and rests perfectly it only gets him ‘so far’ in his pursuit to achieve excellence.
“At this point in my career, these constant training tangibles were only going to get me so far,” expressed Lodwick. “I was looking for something more to take my abilities to the next level.”
A former coach of Lodwick’s expose him to an entirely new energy source, the result of taking the US Nordic Combined team to visit troops stationed in the Middle East right after winning the 2010 Olympic silver medal in the team. While a coach may have exposed him to something as profound as mentoring our troops, the new ‘training regime’ is pure Lodwick.
As the world zeros in on 2014, this 20-time national champion, 3-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist is focused on going toe-to-toe with America’s troops to help him prepare for his record run in Sochi.
Through a program established by former US Ski Team coach and wax technician, Robi Powers of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Lodwick is sharing his personal life story with Airmen from the nation’s Air Force Global Strike Command. He’s rolling up his sleeves and exposing all of his trials and tribulations with our country’s nuclear missile and bomber Airmen.
He’s also asking them to join him in his effort. “I having all the Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen share, wear, rub and hold my Olympic Silver medal,” says Lodwick. “I’m coming to them and sharing my resiliency stories and asking them to share theirs with me. I’m asking them to join me as a team as I head towards Sochi.”
 |
| Lodwick with Minot AFB EOD Team |
While the nonprofit that Powers started, American300 is focused on Todd’s mentoring of Airmen, they can’t deny that the Olympian is gaining an advantage over his competition by drawing from the spirit and bonds that Lodwick is picking up from his tours with the organization.
“After we took Todd to Baghdad with his teammates following their historic team silver medal performance, Todd came to us and asked if he could do more,” said Powers.
According to Lodwick, it was more along the lines of “I need to do more. I need to let these troops know just how important they are to me and how committed I am to helping them be ‘champions’ in their lives.”
Whether you’re representing your county on the athletic field as I do or on the battle field as these troops are trained to do, you need to surround yourself with the best and I couldn’t think of a better group than the men and women of our Armed Forces.”
Over the next two years Lodwick is on a mission. Whether he’s patrolling off the shores of Cuba, climbing into nuclear missile launch capsules in remote Montana or flying thousands of miles in pursuit of helping troops be great, his mission is the same as these airmen – push each other to be champions.
“If I make my sixth Olympic Team that will really be something special, but in the meantime I’m focused on getting my 2010 Olympic Silver medal around the necks of as many Airmen as possible. I want troops stationed across the US and around the globe to share in this effort because they’re the reason I’m able to even compete in the Games in the first place.”
To follow Lodwick's troop interactions look for “Air Force Global Strike Command Never Quit Series Tours” over the next 18 months at: www.American300.org
 |
| Todd Lodwick - 5x Olympian, 3x World Champion, 20x National Champion - Olympic Silver Medalist |
No comments:
Post a Comment