This Week's Inspiration:
What It Is: Let’s talk about the greatest opening to a TV show ever. If you're over 45, you probably already know where I’m going with this. Before cable, streaming, or even decent reception depending on your rabbit ears, there was one reason to race to the living room every weekend: ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
That opening? Pure magic. It still gives me chills:
"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport...
The thrill of victory...
...and the agony of defeat...
The human drama of athletic competition...
This is ABC’s Wide World of Sports!"
And let’s not forget the iconic visuals—especially that poor ski jumper, Vinko Bogataj, crashing off the ramp in a tangle of limbs and skis, forever seared into our memory as the face of "the agony of defeat."
Why It Inspires Me: Two words: nostalgia and truth.
Nostalgia, because this was the soundtrack of my sports-obsessed childhood. Every time I hear that line, I’m transported back to a simpler time—when weekends meant watching sports with my family, dreaming of glory, and learning that sports are a rollercoaster of highs and lows.
Truth, because that iconic phrase—“the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat”—captures everything beautiful and brutal about sports. No matter who you are, at some point you’re going to fall off the metaphorical ski jump. And when you do? You get back up. You show up again. You keep going.
Whether you’re a 10-year-old playing rec soccer or a parent cheering on your teen from the sidelines, this is the lesson: Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. Sport teaches us to handle both with grit, grace, and a little humor.
