Tenley Albright: Miracles on Ice

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Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every time the Olympics roll around, we’re regaled with inspiring stories of the athletes. Well, it’s hard to imagine a more inspiring story than this one, from long ago. Tenley Albright was the very first American woman to win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating, and the first to win the World Championship. That was in 1956. It was a remarkable feat, made all the more so, because Tenley Albright was a polio survivor. After those Olympics, she entered Harvard Medical School - one of only 5 women - and spent the next decades as a surgeon, a researcher, and a professor. At 86, she is still running a center she founded at MIT to devise creative solutions to public health issues. She talks here about how her recovery from polio contributed to her success as a skater, and how the lessons of skating prepared her for a life in medicine. She also tells some wonderful stories from the Winter Olympics, and shares her gentle insights about motivation and competition. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2022

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Alice.
0:06.0	My kids I discovered this week have never heard of Eric Heiden or Apollo Ono,
0:12.0	Bonnie Blair or Picabose Street.
0:15.0	And I can't blame them.
0:17.0	Every generation has its own Olympic icons.
0:20.0	Well, as the 2022 Winter Olympics are about to begin, I have a confession to make.
0:27.0	I had never heard of this groundbreaking athlete until I came across her interview in the Academy of Achievement's
0:35.2	Archive. The jumps, the spins, the dance steps, choreography, and especially that feeling of, I suppose, trying to fly was what I really
0:47.6	like and what I still like about skating.
0:50.0	When I listened to Tenley Albright's story, I was completely taken aback.
0:54.9	How could I not know about her?
0:57.4	First of all, she survived polio and went on to become the first American woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating and the first
1:07.9	American woman to win the world championship. That was in the 1950s. Then she went to Harvard Medical School when women were far from welcome. And she became a surgeon, a researcher, and a professor. She also founded a center at MIT to tackle some of our
1:27.4	most pressing public health problems. And at 86, she still runs it. So yeah, Tenley Albright. She's my newest
1:35.7	inspiration and she might just be yours too. If you don't fall down you aren't
1:41.3	trying to do things that are hard enough for you.
1:44.0	Figure skating is a very good example. When you fall flat, when you so-called wipe out, when you go
1:50.1	flat on your face sliding across the ice. There's only one thing to do and that is
1:55.5	get up and try it again. This is what it takes a podcast about passion, vision, and
2:02.4	perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
2:05.0	I'm Alice Winkler.
2:08.0	Adam Aye, this child is gifted and I heard that enough that I started to believe it. If you have the
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