Olympic Gold Medalist Wrestler Addresses OHS Students
by Andrew Lindgren
November 06, 2007
Olympia welcomed Olympic Champion Ben Peterson, to give his motivational story to Olympia’s juniors and seniors. Ben Peterson was an Olympic gold medalist in the 1972 Munich, Germany Olympics in wrestling. He also received a silver medal in the 1976 Montreal, Canada Olympics. He was on the 1980 Olympic team that was going to wrestle in Moscow, Russia, but the United States decided to withdraw from participating in the Olympics. Mr. Peterson’s brother also won the gold and silver at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics.
Mr. Peterson shared stories with students about how he achieved such high goals. He presented four main concepts to the students. His first concept was to, “Set right goals.” He encouraged students not only to set short term goals, but also long terms, and to think past having fun on the weekends. His second point was to, “Achieve goals through Work.” He described you could do this by intensity, consistency, and faithfulness. To help us understand where he was coming from, he told us about how he didn’t win a single match during his freshman year in high school, but by the end of his senior year in college he went undefeated.
Mr. Peterson’s third message was, “Dare to be different.” He described that it isn’t easy to do the right thing all the time, but it pays off in the end. His final statement was, “Do your best for someone else.” He said during all his work, he wasn’t only doing it for himself, but for his family, country, teammates, God, and his wife. Many students gained a lot from Mr. Peterson’s speech, and Olympia was glad to have him here as a speaker!
