A phrase that’s been much bandied about here in Massachusetts of late is: “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” This pithy adage has been deployed in reaction to —or as cover-up of —the recent special election held to fill Ted Kennedy’s US Senate seat. As you all surely know, it was a heavily-watched and hotly-contested election with both state and national implications. But why do I invoke Massachusetts politics here? Because —to continue with the kinship analogy —a close cousin to the aforementioned phrase is: “Good news travels fast.” And here at ITA we have more good news to share (on top of the news about Scott Blackmun’s appointment to the position of USOC CEO, Emily Azevedo’s secured spot on the US Olympic Bobsled Team, and the ITA podium sweep at the Methow Valley SuperTour).



To wit: two more members of the Arena Roster have just been named to the US Olympic Team: Torin Koos (pictured above) and Caitlin Compton (pictured below) will be donning Team USA uniforms in Vancouver next month as members of the US Nordic Ski Team. This is Torin’s third Olympic team berth (wow!) and Caitlin’s first. Congratulations to them both, as well as to all of the other skiers on the roster who laid down their best efforts over the course of the rigorous Olympic selection process. Each one of you can also claim a measure of victory knowing that you helped push your competitors —and colleagues —to their best performances.

Toot! Toot!

Yes, that's the sound of me tooting ITA's horn, which is not something I do all that often, but the circumstances so merited today. Two days ago I was impressed when I learned that not one but two ITA Athletes —Torin Koos and Laura Valaas —won their respective sprint races at the recent SuperTour event in the Methow Valley, virtual hometown competitions for both Koos (pictured below) and Valaas.


But before I could bask in the reflected glow of that news for even one revolution of the earth, a second set of races happened at that same Methow Valley SuperTour. In those races —a 15k classic for the men and a 10k classic for the women —ITA Athletes not only went 1-2 in the men’s race, but they swept the podium in the women’s race. To wit: Torin Koos edged out Brian Gregg by nine-tenths of a second on the men’s side; and Caitlin Compton led an ITA 1-2-3 on the women’s side, with Laura Valaas and Nicole De Yong taking second and third, respectively. Pretty impressive results, yes?

And as it so happened, the logging of the above superlative athletic performances coincided with the publication of a fascinating editorial in yesterday’s New York Times titled “On Basic Human Pleasures: Food, Sex and Giving”. (FYI: there’s really very little sex in the piece; I think that’s just a hook to get you to read the column.)

It was penned by Nicholas Kristof (one half of the duo expected to speak at Middlebury College's commencement ceremony this spring; the other —and better? —half is his wife Sheryl Wu Dunn, with whom he co-authored the bestseller “Half the Sky”), who uses his 750 word allotment to link “doing good” to “feeling good.” To the extent that happiness drives athletic performance —and I would argue it does —one might be able to make the case that all of the Arena Athletes who do good on a regular basis are putting money in their emotional banks, as well as in the vault of their athletic potential. Just my two cents.