What Actors Can Learn from Olympians

As Theatre and the Olympic games have their origins in ancient Greece, it seems only natural to look for connections between the two.

I haven't watched much of the games this year (I don't have a television) aside from some ice dancing (which is awesome) and curling (which is reminiscent of team bocce on ice, and I don't fully understand). But I've been hearing and reading about them plenty. I find them inspirational.

So here's the beginning of my list of lessons that actors (and everyone else) can learn from the Olympians:

- If you’re doing what you love, it’s worth all the sacrifices.

- If you fall down, you have to get back up again and keep going.

- If you want to succeed, it helps to be obsessed with what you’re doing. 

- You can always be better. 

- If you stop practicing, you won’t be at the top of your game when you need to be. 

- Fight for the chance to show what you can do.

- Always make sure you're warmed-up before you start.

- You play the way you practice. (So treat rehearsals as seriously as performances.)

- Go for the gold. Aim high. (Because really, does anyone go to the Olympics aiming for bronze? It's not a strong enough motivation.)

Have any other thoughts on what we can learn from the athletes? Leave them in the comments section.

-- Angela Sauer

Comments

[Samira]

You have good points. We talked about this in our story-class. There's an interesting book by playwright Clem Martini called 'The Greek Playwright'. He discusses the origins of theatre and its link to the olympics.

[Samira]

ps: my acting teacher sometimes refers to us a theathlets... his main reason is that you have to be in a good physical state to be an actor and that you have to practice daily, like an athlete...