What Olympians from medical schools tell about your career

The 2000 Sydney Olympics was the first Olympic games I can recall from memory. I was at my school, inside a tin hall. A small TV stood in front, and it was airing the opening ceremony. While I no longer remember the details, I can vaguely recall a horse-riding act. Twenty years later, or 21 given the pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 was the latest I watched.

An Olympics amidst a pandemic – the games were bound to be different. The headlines were varied. But, there was something that caught my eye. Olympians who were not only great athletes but also deeply involved in other fields were winning gold medals. Lee Kiefer , a medicine student, became the first person from the United States to win a gold medal in individual foil. Anna Kiesenhofer , a Math PhD from Austria, took home gold in the women’s cycling road race. As these headlines popped up on my screen, I remembered a TedTalk by Emilie Wapnick – Why some of us don’t have one true calling .