What Can We Learn From Olympic Gold Medalists?

With the 2024 Summer Olympics set to kick off tomorrow in Paris, more than 3 billion people around the world will tune in to watch the greatest athletes compete for gold medals in 32 different sports.

I have interviewed many Olympic gold medalists over the years, with the goal of drawing out lessons that any of us can apply to our lives to become more successful personally and professionally, a key theme of many of my keynotes.

There is a lot to unpack but at a high level, attaining greatness - in sports or in any other endeavor - requires focus, discipline, dedication, passion, resilience, and a growth mindset.

I dove into this topic in a Thirty Minute Mentors episode with Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the U.S. Olympics and the highest-ranking woman in American sports, who told me:

"What I've observed in particular - and probably this is what I've learned to benefit myself the most from Team USA athletes - is they often pick a thing. They don't pick 30 things at once...

I've got to work on my elbow rotation. Could be a thrower, right? And so in order to advance my throwing, I've got to work on my elbow rotation. And it's not like they wake up on Monday and say, 'I've got to work on my elbow rotation.' And then on Tuesday, they say, 'I'm going to work on my steps.' They say, 'I'm gonna work on my elbow rotation' and then they go to work on their elbow rotation for like a year.

They build consistent habits, but they pick a thing and then they go deep and they lock that in. And then they pick the next thing, and they go deep, and they lock that in...

Too often we tend to over-subscribe ourselves across all the things we want to do. Pushing 52 balls down the field at one time is a lot and we probably aren't going to be very successful in that regard."

Check out the Thirty Minute Mentors episode with Sarah, the episodes with Olympic gold medalists, and recent episodes featuring Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel, legendary actor Beau Bridges, and the head of the CDC Dr. Mandy Cohen at www.thirtyminutementors.com on your favorite podcasting app.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one-on-one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

Follow Adam on Instagram and Twitter at @adammendler and on LinkedIn and listen and subscribe to Thirty Minute Mentors on your favorite podcasting app.