Winter Games Question: Do You Learn More From Winning or From Losing?

I actually learned a lot from Lindsay Vonn's response to her disappointing performance in the giant slalom. It's not known as her best event, but this time she didn't even finish the race because she straddled a gate. In an interview afterward she just said, "Sometimes when I get a little too aggressive I take the turn too quickly and straddle." What's amazing to me is how top competitors can hold in their mind the two possible outcomes of smashing success and crushing failure, and still manage to put in 100%. You can't hedge your bets out of fear. Sometimes taking chances pays off and sometimes it doesn't, but you have to take them anyway.

So well put, @EmilyCowan! That interview was so raw and it really let down the curtain between the game-face elite athlete and the person who is under so much pressure and works so hard. She's human after all, just like we all are - making lots of errors and trying to improve next time. I definitely learn more from failure! 

In general, I think I have learned more from the moments when things don’t go as expected. However, one of my favorite stories from the games is the Czeck skier Ester Ledecka who won gold in 2 sports. She went to coach after coach because they wanted to make her choose. But she knew in her heart that she could compete in both. And trusting herself paid off! I just love that story.