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Velonews reports that former champion cyclist Twigg got a CS degree but wasn't too successful in that career, and is now homeless in Seattle, https://www.velonews.com/2019/04/news/now-homeless-twigg-opens-up-in-article-with-seattle-times_492734 A longer version of the story/interview appears in the Seattle Times, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/olympic-medal-winning-cyclist-rebecca-twigg-is-homeless-in-seattle/
Rebecca Twigg has now been without a home for almost five years in Seattle, living first with friends and family, then in her car, then in homeless shelters and then, for a night, under garbage bags on the street downtown. She hasn't had a bike for years, and no one recognizes her anymore, she says.
Twigg, 56, agreed to share her story to convince the public that not all homeless people are addicted to drugs or alcohol; that there are many like her, who have struggled with employment and are "confused," as she said she is, about what to do next with their lives. She did not want to discuss mental health but feels it should be treated more seriously in Washington.
"Some of the hard days are really painful when you're training for racing," Twigg said, "but being homeless, when you have little hope or knowledge of where the finish line is going to be, is just as hard."
[...] She was spotted at 17 by famous cycling coach Eddie Borysewicz. After she won the world championship, he invited her to live in the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and train for the 1984 Olympic Games, where for the first time, women would be competing on bicycles.
Americans dominated the Olympics that year. Twigg won a silver medal, missing gold by a few inches to famous racer Connie Carpenter. She continued on her way up over the next several years, setting world records, winning world titles, and racing more than 60 times a year. She became known for her competition in individual pursuit, where two cyclists start at the same time on opposite sides of the track and each tries to catch the other. She's still among the most-decorated athletes in pursuit.
But the breakneck pace couldn't continue forever. She was married and soon after divorced. She crashed in Texas, broke her thumb and got 13 stitches in her head. The following year she felt burned out. She took a break at age 26, and that year she grew an entire inch, possibly because her body no longer had to expend so much energy training.
Twigg got an associate degree in computer science and became a programmer for a seaweed-products company in San Diego.
Twigg says the career wasn't a perfect fit. She quit and started training for the 1992 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal in the 3,000-meter pursuit after only nine months of training. As she entered her 30s, she became regarded as the best American female cyclist.
The article has more details, she tried other IT jobs, but (not surprisingly to me) it sounds like her heart wasn't really in it.
If you were in her spot, what would you do for a second act, after such stunning early success in international sports? Some former athletes become motivational speakers or coaches, but she may not be the "self promoter" type, relying on her skill/strength for her success instead of team politics.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 17 2019, @07:32PM (8 children)
You need to take each person on an individual basis.
Shit like this is why I cringe when I hear things like "the homeless" or even worse, "the homeless problem." Do you see why? Hint: try substituting "Jews" for "homeless" or "blacks" (well, or the word this kind of person uses instead of "black folks") for "homeless."
I know, it's hard not to automatically judge when you have a bunch of consistently bad experiences with a given group. It's easier to generalize. Especially if that puts some convenient moral distance (*or so you think!*) between you and "them." But individuals are individuals, and it's as wrong to judge one homeless person by what you've seem from others as it is to judge one black man from what you've seem from other black men, and for almost the same reasons.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday April 18 2019, @08:50PM (7 children)
> You need to take each person on an individual basis.
I agree, I mean, right here on SN, you read generalizations like "My fondest wish is for all the haters who have never eaten out of a garbage can, slept in a train station, or begged for help from police and been laughed at and told they deserve to die to suffer these things personally". And given the broad definition of haters it is aimed at some MILLION people.
Good trolls are quick and direct, not sparse and convoluted.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 18 2019, @10:32PM (6 children)
Category error. Every individual needs to learn compassion in their own way; my wish is for those individuals who will only learn it through suffering to suffer in the ways necessary for them to learn it. As individuals.
Nice try, Bot. I warned you about that latest Windows update but nooooo, you just HAD to go install it anyway. Hold still and let me do some percussive maintenance. This is gonna hurt you a hell of a lot more than it's gonna hurt me, but, well, see above about people who only learn through suffering...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Bot on Friday April 19 2019, @04:15AM (5 children)
Hitler wasn't racist, he carefully considered each individual and gassed only those found to be jews.
Your criterion to determine those worthy of suffering the an eye for an eye treatment was one dimensional, objection rejected. Sorry.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 20 2019, @12:45PM (4 children)
My God, are you running WinME or something? That's a Godwin in the truest sense of the term, and it's also false: Jews made up about 6.5 million of the 13+ million killed in the Holocaust, and Hitler's criteria mostly boiled down to "zis person iz part of group vhich iz bad for zer Reich."
And you don't get to bitch about one-dimensional criteria to determine who deserves to suffer when you worship a God whose main criterion is "believe in me or suffer for eternity," you fucking hypocrite. Your God also said something about attending to the beam in your own eye before you pull the dust out of your neighbor's; I strongly suggest you heed that advice.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 20 2019, @12:54PM
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday April 20 2019, @04:39PM (2 children)
> it's godwin
on purpose
> and false
irrelevant for the discussion, just like the rest of your rebuttal attempt.
> when you worship a God whose main criterion is "believe in me or suffer for eternity,"
strange way of saying I tend to recognize as God the guy who voluntarily sacrificed himself for whoever he chooses to take with him. The puerile view of a vindicator god, which btw was intent on vindicating and protecting his chosen ones other than himself, needs to take into account luke 23:34 and matthew 18. Another problem is that as supreme judge God is also defined as just. Why should one have issues with a judgement from a perfect being? You don't even know how will you fare, see matt 21:28. Preventive criticism in this context is nonsense. Sadly your position is reflected very often. I could care less what people think but these ideas always rustle my condensers.
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(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday April 21 2019, @12:10AM (1 child)
*siiiiigh*
You have such deep, fundamental problems with your worldview that I'm not sure it's possible to fix you :/ Giving you a taste of some good old Christian justice and burning you alive for your beliefs might actually be the most merciful thing to do here. Thankfully for you, secular power overrides religion, and I'd find myself in jail or the gas chamber should I do such a thing.
Your key issue is "defined as." Who does the defining? How does the definer know this definition is correct? What sort of epistemological error checking is in place to prevent, for example, the same sort of self-serving bullshitting by which North Korea "defines" itself as "Democratic Peoples' Republic of North Korea?"
Really, though, when your response to a rebuttal is "it doesn't matter if what I said was actually false," you're not actually speaking of reality or real things any longer.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday April 21 2019, @10:46AM
> Who does the defining? How does the definer know this definition is correct?
You don't. Religion is a series of assertions in the domain where the assertions can't be proven. You either have faith in some, and behave accordingly, or you don't. I am not instructed not required to CONVINCE others of this, but only to present them and live them myself. Other religions may vary.
Account abandoned.