By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
So few can start to know the sentiments and feelings of being a sibling to an Olympic champion. Within the case of Alison Kos, the 15-year-old sister of Hungarian star Hubert Kos, it’s about having her personal id and pursuing her targets, whereas being measured in opposition to her personal flesh and blood within the course of.
Kos delivered an emotional and deeply private message on the TEDx occasion on the American Worldwide Faculty of Budapest, titled “Discover Your Pool: Turning Strain Into Objective”.
Kos opened up with a recollection of the boys’s 200 backstroke closing in Paris, the place her brother went on to turn out to be an Olympic champion.
“I feel it’s most athletes’ greatest dream to win an Olympic gold medal, and to have a brother that gained it’s a nice feeling and is admittedly particular to me,” Kos stated. “It offers me the arrogance that I’m able to do that as nicely.”
The success of her brother, whereas monumental, additionally started to alter her life following these Olympic Video games.
“At my first race after the Olympics, nothing actually modified… It’s simply that many individuals got here as much as me asking me these questions [like], ‘Oh, are you Hubi’s sister? [and] What’s it like being an Olympic champion’s sister?’ and to be trustworthy, ot does get annoying after some time,” she stated.
However the race was nonetheless the main target for Kos.
“I jumped within the pool, and I swim my race, and all I can take into consideration is the current second and what I must do now.”
Following her efficiency, she met together with her coach and mentioned the questions she was requested earlier than her race, which “aggravated” her.
His response was one which modified her mind-set, “ He tells me, ‘oh, nicely, you’re not Hubi’s sister, you’re Aison Kos’,” she stated.
Kos famous that skilled athletes are inclined to fail at the next fee when others set excessive expectations for them. She even brazenly admits that she has been coping with this identical feeling since Hubert’s crowning Olympic achievement.
“That is one thing that I’m going by way of proper now and I did undergo earlier than. Whether or not it’s a race, or me simply standing right here proper now… I’ve tousled lots of races earlier than in my previous, and it’s because I used to be fearful of failure, and since I put myself underneath strain due to my brother being an Olympic champion.”
In that very same yr, Hubert was the poster boy for the Brief Course World Championships in Budapest. In the meantime, Alison was making ready for a championship meet of her personal, the Hungarian Nationwide Championships.
“I swam [the 200 backstroke], I didn’t swim a private greatest. I used to be very upset in myself,” she stated. “Every week later, my brother Hubie went to the world championships and he gained a gold medal, solely 0.03 seconds off the world document.”
Hubert shouldn’t be the one swimming brother of Alison; she describes Oli, her different brother who swims at Northwestern College, and his reasoning for heading stateside to additional his profession.
“He believed that if he goes to America, he may have a a lot greater likelihood of pursuing his goals of turning into an Olympic champion, as a result of not many individuals believed in him right here at house,” she stated.
She described one other examine, speaking about how strain can each negatively and positively have an effect on an athlete’s efficiency, explaining how “ there are some athletes that may flip strain into motivation. They might help them carry one of the best out of themselves. However as I stated earlier than, there are a lot of individuals or many athletes that carried out very poorly underneath strain as a result of they overthink and so they’re scared.”
She circled again to the straightforward phrases her coach had spoken to her after her race.
“After my coach informed me these clever phrases many extra occasions, that I’m not Hubi’s sister, I’m Alison, I got here to the belief of what this meant,” she stated. “I’m not doing the game so I turn out to be like my brother. I’m doing the game for myself to attain my very own targets and to attain my very own goals.”
Her closing remarks have been directed in the direction of anyone coping with strain or stress.
“Discover one thing that helps you get your thoughts off of issues, like how the pool makes me [feel]. So, in different phrases, for me, that will imply, discover your pool.”
Learn the total story on SwimSwam: Alison Kos, Sister of Hubert Kos, Shares Highly effective Message in TEDx Discuss “Discovering Your Pool”
