RIO DE JANEIRO -- There are 11,551 athletes competing at these Olympics, all striving for that elusive gold, silver or bronze medal. While Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles have won multiple golds, around 10,500 of the athletes will go home without a single medal of any color. After the years and years of training and sacrifice, that is devastating for some. But they and others still will take home lessons and emotions that are nearly as important as any medal.And perhaps more so.The Olympics to me are permission to continue wanting things that I may or not get, distance runner Alexi Pappas said. Because I see so many people around me trying so hard as well. Its motivating to be around that. The Olympics are permission to keep believing in yourself because hundreds of other people believe in themselves, and they want something. And its a scary thing to want something but its less scary to be in a whole village of people who want something they may or may not get. ...Theres an element of it being a celebration. People want to do big things here, but everyone recognizes that its an achievement to be here and that the competitions themselves are celebrations.Of Greek-American lineage, Pappas grew up in the Bay Area and attended Dartmouth. In Rio, she competed for Greece in the womens 10,000-meter run, finishing in the top half (17 out of 37 entrants) with a personal-best time of 31:36.16. Like every Olympian, there is more to know about her than just her time in a competition.Pappas is also a writer. And an actress. And a filmmaker. And a poet. She writes poems for Womens Running Magazine, including a recent one titled Before, Olympics 2016, about such pre-competition preparation as knowing where bravery hides so she can draw it out.Every word matters in poetry, Pappas said. That helps me as a writer to appreciate words, and it also helps me as a runner. Because in poetry there are certain limitations, but there also is a lot of creativity within it, and I think that running is similar.Pappas and her fiance, Jeremy Teicher, co-wrote and co-directed the recently completed film Tracktown, which is set in Eugene, Oregon (aka, Tracktown USA). Based on some of her own experiences in the sport, the movie is about an intensely focused runner, played by Pappas, who competes at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene. The film also stars SNLs Rachel Dratch and Andy Buckley of The Office.She eventually wants to become a full-time filmmaker -- I would like to make things with Jeremy for the rest of our lives -- but she also wants to run as long as she can.A top runner and vibrant personality in the States, Pappas could have competed for the U.S. but chose to run for Greece instead -- she was able to thanks to dual citizenship since her grandmother is from Greece. She said it was an easy decision.My goals are to compete at the highest level, which you can do regardless of where you run. But also to have an impact on the sport, she said. Im doing that already in the U.S., but I think I can extend it to a place where distance running was born. But Greece has never had the leadership or role models in distance running. This was an obvious opportunity for me.While Pappas time in the 10,000 was more than a minute behind Ethiopian gold medalist Almaz Ayanas world record, Pappas said the race was the highlight of the Olympics. Thats because the Olympics are not just about winning or medaling. You can draw something just from being here and competing against the worlds greatest in your sport, regardless of what that sport is.Everyone at the Olympics is among the best, not just the ones who win gold, Pappas said. There is a remarkable energy to be around.Pappas was saying this outside the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, where she had just watched Greek teammates compete in synchronized swimming. She turned to Teicher and her father, telling them how odd it was that she and they were Olympians despite vastly different sports. But that is another beauty of the Olympics. It is about athletes in so many sports.Were different creatures, but were all trying to be at the highest level of something very specific, Pappas said. And none of these things are life or death matters. Win or lose here, youre going to be OK. But that you care about something so much that you almost make it a life or death thing is really special. And to be around it is emotional. Were all doing things that are not life and death every day, but if we can dedicate ourselves to it like these women I watched today, thats the best.Thats the lesson of the Olympics. Medal or no medal, the key is dedicating yourself to doing your best in what you love, whether that is running, swimming, poetry, film, technology, medicine, education or anything at all. Win or lose, succeed or not, the experience alone can be equally important. There is no good age for a professional cricketer to be told he will not be offered a new contract. But if there is a particularly worrying time for it to happen it is when you are just the wrong side of 30: too young to be thinking your career has run its natural course, yet too old to be the most attractive proposition to a new employer, especially once it has been noted that you have played only a handful of matches in your last two seasons.This was the reality that confronted Gareth Andrew last August when Worcestershire, looking to create space in their staff roster to accommodate an influx of talented youngsters, identified their injury-bedevilled all-rounder as an obvious candidate to make way.What was all the more galling for the countys 31-year-old one-time player of the year was that the back problem that had plagued him for three frustrating years had been finally resolved just days before he was given the news.Eight years of service, 327 wickets, 23 fifties and one hundred - suddenly it was all over.I saw it coming, he admits. My contract was up and as a senior player who was not playing the writing was on the wall. But it was still tough to leave. Worcester has become my home at the end of the day.It was a shame because after two years hoping my back would resolve I had an operation in the middle of last season and it cleared up the problem straight away.It was only a few days later that I was released. Yet I felt I had a lot to give back to the club.By the time Andrew found himself ready to play again, comfortable for the first time in three years, it was not long before he discovered there was hardly a queue forming to take him on.Counties are looking for younger guys and Im getting older, he said. Plus they are always going to be a bit wary of someone who has had back problems, if they dont know the ins and outs.I have a personal friend who works as my agent and Ive been in cricket long enough to have built up a lot of contacts. But the answers we were getting tended to be the same - counties have had to tighten their budgets and are looking to play younger guys.Happily for Andrew, one countys misfortunes have created an opportunity for him. Although there are no assurances beyond the immediate future, he has found work with Hampshire, who remembered his approach during the winter and have turned to him to help them through an injury crisis.Id started to concentrate on things away from cricket, renovating a house in Worcester and doing the next part of my marketing module. Ive been playing for Ombersley in the Birmingham League, Andrew said.Id been in contact with Hampshire through the winter but when they signed Tino Best I thought that door was closed.But then randomly, while I was organising the teas for Ombersley on a Friday afternoon for a Saturday game, I got a call from Giles White saying they needed me for a four-day game and would I be aable to meet them at Old Trafford on the Saturday.dddddddddddd I bit their hand off.A little over two months later he has played 16 matches for Hampshire across all formats, contributing with bat or ball in all of them, and has the potential to continue his career, for which he thanks his partner for unceasing encouragement - she gave me the drive and the kick up the backside when I needed it - and friendly counties, such as Hampshires latest opponents, Warwickshire.Warwickshire were fantastic, he said. Dougie Brown is a great guy and I know Alan Richardson, too, as a team-mate at Worcestershire. They offered me the opportunity to train with them all winter. I had a couple of weeks at Derby too with Pop Welch and I had the pre-season with Warwickshire. They gave me the opportunity to get myself fit, so I will forever be in their debt.Im not looking into the future at the moment. Im on a monthly contract, playing game by game, just loving having the opportunity to be out there playing again.Hampshire have been really accommodating and looked after me really well. It has worked well for them too because they have been losing players left right and centre through injury.And even if I dont fit into Hampshires plans in the long term, it gives me a better chance of finding another club. Im only 32 and having not played a lot of cricket in the last couple of years I feel fresh. I reckon I have a few more years to give.The injury, a stress fracture that first came to light during the 2013 season, restricted him to four first-class matches in 2014 and three in 2015, with five white-ball matches as a batsman only in 2014 but none at all in 2015.I played all the way through 2013 but missed the last couple of games, which is when I realised I had the injury, he said.I did the rehab through the winter and started 2014 really well but after four games I was in a serious amount of pain. It was then we realised the nature of the fracture was different.So I focussed on batting with the second team for the rest of that season and played a couple of T20s as a batter.When 2015 came along we were hoping it had healed naturally. But after the second game it was found there had been what they call a non-union, where the last half a millimetre had not healed. Under stress and workload, it flared up again.We tried injections to stimulate the bone to grow and heal but that didnt work either. The last chance was to have it screwed.I went to see a very good back specialist and the amazing thing is that I walked in one day, had the screw put in and walked out the next day healed, with no pain.In hindsight, had I had it done 18 months ago I would have missed no cricket, but thats just the nature of professional sport I suppose. You dont always know these things. China NFL Jerseys White Wholesale Jerseys 2019 Cheap NFL Jerseys Throwback Wholesale NFL Hoodies Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Camo Jerseys Wholesale Stitched Jerseys Wholesale NFL T-shirts Disocunt Football Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping Youth NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale Jerseys 2020 Wholesale NFL T-shirts Wholesale Jerseys 2018 Black China NFL Jerseys ' ' '