An Olympic gold medalist, Peter Vidmar has successfully used images to win gold medals. This is his story.
"For our Olympic purpose, we have elevated our dream to imagery. I told my friend tim. Okay Tim, let's have a look at the Olympics, the men's gymnastics finals. The final event of the night was for the US team. Tim and I are the last of the group. With the People's Republic of China. They won the big championships of previous years. Surely we should win this year's gold medal. We both got this idea."
"Yeah, that's right. We didn't do it with the Chinese team. We didn't win a medal when they won the World Championships in Budapest, but that was never going to happen."
How did we feel with this statement?
"We closed our eyes. We sat in the corner of the empty stadium. We watched 13,000 Olympic athletes watching the game and 200 million other people watching it live. I was the announcer temporarily. Taken to the mouth. "
Next up is Tim Daggett, USA.
Tim ran his event just like on the Olympic track. He ran to the extreme end of the stadium. Then he poked his hand into her mouth and held it like a microphone.
Next up is Peter Vidmar of the USA.
I looked at our great judge. He's our coach, McCo. I ran in the Olympics and finished my event.
We played the Olympics every day, drawing the Olympic track and running it. We saw in the minds how many thousands looked upon us.
The most interesting thing was on July 31, 1984. It was the last day of the Olympic gymnastics competition. It was held at the University Stadium. There were 13,000 seats. Millions of people around the world watched the match. USA was left for the final of the night. The last two players were me and Tim Daggett. We had to compete with the People's Republic of China, as we portrayed. To win the gold medal, the commitment of both of us was inevitable.
When it was my turn, I looked at my coach, Mako.
"Okay Peter, let's go. You know what to do. You've done this a thousand times before. Run every day on the stadium and run here once. Then go home. You're ready."
He is right. I've planned this moment about a hundred times. I was ready to run on any track. I portrayed the hundreds of thousands of people waiting in our stadium with only two people.
When the announcer called Peter Vidmar of the USA, I heard my friend Tim announcing at our stadium. As the green light burned on, I ran as usual and finished the victorious event. I always pictured myself in the stadium as the Olympic final. So I was no stranger here.
A deep voice flowed from the speaker.
Peter Widmar's score is 9.95
Yeah I did it, I screamed.
The players cheered at once. I celebrated the victory.
Thirty minutes later, we're at the Olympic Stadium, where the Olympic medals are awarded. The crowd of 13,000 waited in silence. Two million television viewers watched our winning streak. As we rounded the gold medals, our national anthem was sung in the background and the American flag was hoisted at the stadium. What we saw more than a hundred times in our stadium became a reality that day.