Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

Following on a PM convo Luckypants and I were having since I changed my Avatar.

Who inspires you and why ?

I'll explain mine. Marco Pantani, Winner of the Tour de France Giro di Italia in the same year ( 1998 ) is a very elite club and only few cyclists have ever done it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Pantani

I used to love the way he would pull the pin and attack on a climb, all of a sudden whoosh he was gone up the climb, it was pretty spectacular, it would either work or he'd blow and get caught and end up loosing time.

I know he dopped with EPO and he got flung out of the Giro in 1999 when his hemacrit ( sp ) levels went over 50%. That really did for him mentally and he always defended he hadnt taken it despite there being some pretty strong medical evidence that he did. It was the norm in his era of cycling in his mind he probably never thought he was doing anything wrong. He never recovered after that and slid down a slippery slope of subsance abuse and depressoin.

He died in 2004 due to a cocaine overdose. He had a darker side to his character and IMHO had some mental issues that he never got the help for that he needed. A tragic loss.

He was one of a handful of cyclists who put Lance Armstrong under real pressure especially at the Tour in 2000. To me the doping is secondary, what he did doesnt to my eyes glorify it. In fact quite the opposite, without it I still think he would have been a great cyclist, in fact doping was his downfall and getting caught tipped him over the edge.

Perhaps more of a flawed genuis rather than a true figure of inspiration or hero. But when I'm slogging it up the local climbs. I'm thinking to myself of what it says in my signature...

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

that reminds me of an article I was reading a while back about elite athletes who hate the thing they're good at (might have been something to do with Andre Agassi's similar fall from grace, albeit with a happier ending).

The people who inspire me are relatively ordinary, but extraordinary because of the ordinary probelms thay have to overcome in an extraordinary way. Take this guy, for example:
http://www.joebrownsegground.co.uk/about.html

Puts things into perspective, motivates me to get up and go to work and try and do what I can to change things and make life better for people.

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

My Dad - simples...the things he has been through would stop most of us in our tracks...he was 83 last week and he's still fighting battles that would test the hardest of us.

Edit: might sound corny, but it's 100% fact

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

Is it bad that I honestly have no one?

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

In sports: Michael Schumacher. I read an interview with Jean Todd who explained how in testing they would monitor his heart rate... and how it never seemed to elevate above a resting heart rate, something he said he'd never witnessed in any other driver. He went on to say how you could have a smooth conversation with Schumi while he was cruising around at 200+mph and he wouldn't be out of breath or distracted in the slightest. MS was also the only F1 driver he knew of who used to adjust his brake balance mid corner...:confused:

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

One of my engineers.

The middle of last year his immune system decided to attack him. It was swift, and horrnedously debilitating. Within a couple of weeks he was off work but continued to deteriorate as his organs and muscles struggled. Within a month he couldn't walk without sticks, and was soon in a wheel chair and needed someone to push it. His sight started to fail, along with his speech.

During week 4, whilst in hospital for tests he had convulsions and ended up in ICU. During this spell in hospital the Docs finally diagnosed what was wrong. Meds were started, along with basic physio.

By week 20 we were discussing a back to work strategy - part time days/weeks, and working with others as opposed to the usual working alone. Even now he is on short time working, and is limited to working on certain eqpt.

Throughout a very frightening time for both him and his family his humour never left him. His commitment to supporting others, from his wheelchair, family/friends & work colleagues never left him. On occasion he's given me a glimpse of his dark moments but has then shrugged them off with a joke.

An ordinary guy but with extrordinary inner strength.

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

Not so much inspiration or motivation,but admiration and respect for the sacrifice
Every name on every war memorial--------these people have let me lead the life of freedom that we all take for granted

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

Inspiration/motivation - some (not all, lol) of the amazing doctors and professors that teach us. Truly humbling.

Look up to/admire - Chess grandmasters, Fischer, Kasparov, etc. Their minds are just something else completely, and the depth of their chess understanding and analysis is...well I only wish I was anywhere near that.

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

No inspiration or motivation from others but as the previous poster has mentioned, I always admire and respect others for their achievements.

Re: Inspiration, Motivation who do you look up to ?
 

I am a climber and I have climbed some hard routes. As an aspirant climbing Instructor I used to read a lot of Climbing Biographies.

The one that stayed with me was The Hard Years by Joe Brown, this guy climbed harder than most of his peers, put up more routes than I have climbed and set a pace that is unmatched to this day. Finishing work on a Friday he would cycle from Manchester to the Peak or Wales and climb all weekend.

His book is inspirational. He was one of the first Outdoor Education teachers and he was a Manchester plumber. He was and too a degree still is my hero.