Kid Athletes

by David Stabler

  After Earl Woods left the military, he moved to Southern California and took up golf. What started out as a hobby quickly became his passion.

  When Tiger was a baby, Earl moved his son’s high chair into the garage so he could keep an eye on him while practicing his swing. In place of a rattle, he gave Tiger a little putter that he’d made out of a sawed-off golf club.

  Over and over, Tiger’s dad swatted balls off an Astroturf mat and into a soccer net strung across the garage floor. Looking on, Tiger grew mesmerized by the graceful, repetitive motion. One day, he climbed down from his high chair, waddled over to the mat, and placed his own ball down on the tee. Then he lined up his tiny club and executed a perfect imitation of Earl’s swing. He launched the ball right into the center of the net.

  A baby hitting a golf ball? It was like nothing Earl had ever seen before. He called his wife to watch their son’s amazing feat.

  Earl started playing golf with Tiger every day. When Tiger was only a year and a half old, he took him to the local driving range, where they hit buckets of balls into the nets together. When Tiger was three, Earl took him to a golf course near their house. Tiger played nine holes and shot a 48, well over par for the course but still impressive for a toddler.

  Soon, the family’s living room became Tiger’s putting green. After all, it was already filled with obstacles and traps: the coffee table, the fireplace, plants. Tiger had to learn to chip the ball well to get it over the lamp and into the “hole,” which was made out of a cup. Practicing in this space would later help Tiger on a real golf course.

  Not only could Tiger play golf, he also knew everything about the game without ever having a real lesson. When Earl and Tiger watched golf on TV, Tiger could point out the weaknesses of the professional players. “Look Daddy,” he would say, “that man has a reverse pivot!” He instinctively understood the techniques and skills needed to be a superior golfer.

  When other kids were drawing race cars and robots in their notebooks, Tiger was sketching himself launching high-arcing moon shots off a golf tee.

  Tiger’s parents talked together and decided they needed to do everything possible to encourage Tiger to develop his extraordinary talent. Earl Woods would handle golf instruction and training, while Kultida was in charge of motivation and discipline.

  Even people with superior talents have weaknesses, of course, and right away Tiger’s dad could see that his son had a bad habit of losing focus. So he decided to teach him how to deal with distractions. “I’m a tree,” he’d say, and then stand directly in front of Tiger, making him shoot the ball over his head. Another time, just as Tiger was about to make a putt, Earl started jingling coins in his pants pocket. Often times he would cough loudly, sing, or roll a ball into Tiger’s line of vision. He’d do anything to break Tiger’s concentration.

  On and on it went. The distractions angered Tiger, but in time he learned to concentrate fully and sink his putts no matter what was going on around him.

  After the Mike Douglas Show appearance, the whole world knew about Tiger Woods, the little golf superstar. When he was five years old, Tiger was invited on another national television show, called That’s Incredible! This time he used his golf club to hit Wiffle balls into the audience, and again the crowd loved it.

  All the attention could easily have gone to Tiger’s head. But Earl Woods always made sure his son kept his accomplishments in perspective. When another child guest on That’s Incredible! showed off her weightlifting prowess by picking up all three of the show’s hosts at once, Earl pulled Tiger aside.

  “Can you do that?” he asked.

  “No,” Tiger replied.

  “That’s right,” said Tiger’s father. “She’s special in weightlifting and you’re special in golf. There are a lot of special people in the world, and you’re just one of them.”

  After the show, a group of adults approached Tiger and asked for his autograph. Tiger didn’t know what to do. He’d never signed his name before, and especially not at the request of grown-ups who wanted a souvenir. So he just scrawled “TIGER” in large capital letters onto the page.

  When Tiger wasn’t on the golf course, he didn’t feel like a superstar at all. In fact, most of the time he felt like a first-class dork.

  One reason for his lack of confidence was a speech impediment. In elementary school, Tiger developed a stuttering problem that other kids would tease him about. His parents took him to speech therapists, but no one could figure out how to correct the problem. Then one day Tiger stopped stuttering on his own. When people asked him how he did it, he said that he had conquered his speech impediment by talking aloud to the family dog.

  Faulty vision was another problem for Tiger. From an early age, he was severely nearsighted. He had some trouble in class, unable to read what was written on the board. But only when his blurry eyesight started to affect his golf game did Tiger become concerned.

  His parents took him to an optometrist, who prescribed a pair of thick eyeglasses to correct Tiger’s vision. Now he could see everything—including how ridiculous he thought he looked.

  But in the end, it didn’t matter what Tiger looked like or how popular he was in school. He still had that one special talent, and he stayed focused on being the best golfer he could be.

  To improve his game, Tiger began competing in local junior golf events near his home in Southern California. When he was eight years old, he entered the Junior World Golf Tournament, a competition for eight- and nine-year-olds. He needed special permission to play in the tournament, which he won easily.

  At age eleven, Tiger beat his father at golf for the first time. And he never lost to him again. At fifteen, he became the youngest player to ever win the U.S. Junior Amateur championship. By the time he graduated from high school in 1994, he had won the tournament three consecutive times.

  In 1997, Tiger reached a new high point in his career by winning the most prestigious championship of all—the Masters. Sports Illustrated magazine put his photo on the cover: “The New Master,” the headline proclaimed. But to his mom and dad, there was nothing new about this master. Tiger had always been their little superstar. Now he was everyone else’s, too.

  Yao Ming always wanted to be famous. When he was a kid, he dreamed of one day becoming a scientist, an army general, or a politician. But he was destined for bigger things—in more ways than one.

  If Yao needed a clue about what he would do when he grew up, all he had to do was look at his parents. His mom and dad were considered the tallest couple in China. Yao’s father, Yao Zhiyuan, was six feet seven inches tall and played professional basketball. His mother, Fang Fengdi, stood six foot three and played for the Chinese national team. Soon Yao looked like he would outgrow them both. He started out tall and only continued to grow as the years went by.

  When Yao was little, his parents sent him to a doctor to find out how tall he would be. The doctor took an X-ray of Yao’s hand and told them he would grow to be seven foot three. Yao was excited when he heard the news. That would make him one of the tallest men in China!

  By his fourth birthday, Yao was already over four feet tall and weighed more than sixty pounds. He was taller than the average eight-year-old!

  Three years later, he was four feet eleven inches tall. He towered over all his classmates. His teachers told him that he looked like a stork among chickens.

  When Yao entered the third grade, he had stretched to five feet seven inches tall—and he hadn’t even had a growth spurt yet! At school, everybody called him “Xiao Juren,” which means “Little Giant” in Chinese.

  Just as predicted, Yao kept on growing. By the sixth grade, he had grown taller than his mother. He surpassed his father’s height before he reached the ninth grade.

  Being tall posed challenges for Yao and his parents. Because most homes are made for average-size people, the family had to make their home in a special custom-built apartment in Shanghai so they could live comfortably. Its door frames were larger than
normal, so they weren’t constantly bumping their heads. The doorknobs and counters were placed high up so that they wouldn’t have to bend to reach them.

  Their beds were especially long, so they could stretch out at night without falling off the mattress. And there were extra-high shower heads in the bathroom, plus a colossal toilet made just for tall people.

  The chairs and couches were built as big as thrones. Visitors often felt like little children in their home.

  When one of Yao’s friends tried to sit in his chair, his feet didn’t come close to reaching the ground.

  All the family’s clothes also had to be made to order. Yao quickly outgrew regular-sized children’s clothing and had to wear his father’s hand-me-downs. The outfits could be a little … uncomfortable.

  Yao could have easily made a list of all the things he did not like about being tall. For example, he was often treated like a grown-up even though he was just a kid. While other kids his age rode public buses for free, he had to pay the full adult fare. The man at the barber shop made him pay full price as well. And because he ate twice as much as a typical Chinese boy, food in Yao’s house ran out twice as fast.

  But there were advantages to being tall, too. Yao could ride his father’s bicycle instead of a smaller kid’s bike, for example. And he could reach anything he wanted at any time.

  Yao could have used his size to take advantage of the other kids at school. But his parents, who knew what it was like to be the tallest person in the group, taught him to be considerate of others. Whenever his class took a bus on a school trip, Yao gave up his seat so that he wouldn’t block anyone’s view. When it was time to clean the high windows in the classroom, he volunteered.

  In fact, Yao had such a gentle nature that his teachers begin to fear that other kids would take advantage of him. One time, that is just what happened. A bully decided to test Yao’s mettle by punching him repeatedly in the arm.

  When Yao refused to retaliate, the boy went to Yao’s parents and accused him of being the bully. Because Yao was so much bigger than his tormentor, his parents at first believed the boy’s lie. They scolded Yao and ordered him to apologize. Only later did they find out the truth. After that episode, Yao’s mother took it upon herself to teach her son the proper ways to stand up for himself without acting like a bully.

  Perhaps the best thing about being tall was that eventually it allowed Yao to find his true calling in life: basketball.

  That day came when the Harlem Globetrotters arrived in Shanghai to put on an exhibition of trick shots and fancy ball handling. Tickets were hard to come by, but Yao’s mom got two seats close to the court.

  Yao came away amazed by the American players’ abilities and the fun they had playing the game. After that, Yao played basketball every chance he could—something that the Chinese government encouraged kids who were taller than average to do.

  But Yao still had a lot of work ahead to improve his game. He especially had trouble shooting accurately. Sometimes his attempts could be downright embarassing. One day, Yao’s classmates nominated him to represent them in a free-throw shooting contest. As Yao stepped up to the line, everyone cheered. But Yao’s shot barely grazed the net. An air ball!

  The crowd fell silent. And to make matters worse, the next boy in line sank his shot underhanded.

  Even close to the basket, Yao found it hard to heave the ball into the hoop. He was tall but also skinny as a noodle. Smaller kids pushed him out of the way, and his friends used to joke that his bony arms looked like chopsticks. After one or two trips down the court, Yao often ran out of steam.

  When Yao was twelve, his mother took him to meet a famous Chinese basketball coach. The coach took one look at how Yao walked and immediately dismissed him. He told her that Yao would never be good at basketball because his arms were too scrawny and his butt was too big! He simply did not look graceful enough to be a good athlete. It was a very difficult conversation.

  Of course, Yao was discouraged by the coach’s assessment, but he didn’t let setbacks like these stop him from pursuing his dream. He practiced hard and enrolled in the provincial sports academy. He set his sights on becoming the best young basketball player in China. To build his muscles, he pedaled around the school grounds on a tiny bicycle.

  Some of the other students thought he looked funny, but Yao didn’t pay attention to them. Slowly but surely, his physical fitness improved—and so did his basketball skills.

  When he was thirteen, Yao earned a place on the Shanghai Sharks, a junior league team in the Chinese Basketball Association. He spent four years with the Sharks and then, when he was seventeen, moved up to the senior team. Over the next five years, the Sharks went to the CBA finals three times. In his fifth season, Yao led them to the CBA championship. The skinny kid who had trouble hitting the rim with his free throws was now the most celebrated player in China.

  When it came time to make the jump to the United States to play in the NBA, Yao again faced many doubters. Some said he was still too thin and frail to compete with the bigger, stronger American players. A few players even mocked Yao for his Chinese heritage and accent. He might make it to the league because of his size, they thought, but he’d never excel at the professional level in America.

  But Yao continued to defy expectations. He made the All-Star team in each of his eight seasons in the league and led the Houston Rockets to the NBA playoffs four times.

  Yao Ming’s great height had always given him an edge on the competition, but it also took a terrible toll on his body. All those years of running and jumping on hard surfaces led to a series of back, ankle, and knee injuries. Although he still loved playing the game, Yao decided to retire from basketball at the age of thirty to protect his health. No one knew better than he that being tall can be both a blessing and a burden.

  The road to Olympic victory is full of obstacles. To become the first African American gymnast to win an individual all-around gold medal in the international competition, Gabby Douglas had to overcome many challenges—including bullying by some of her own teammates and teachers.

  For Gabby (called “Brie” by her family), gymnastics was always easy. Even as a baby, she was already squeezing her tiny hands around the bars of her crib, just as she would one day do with the uneven bars.

  At an age when most kids were learning to walk, Gabby was climbing and jumping around. As a toddler, she liked to clamber onto the top of a closet door and then leap off like Supergirl. Couches and chairs were springboards for her airborne adventures.

  Sometimes Gabby’s daredevil antics attracted unwanted attention. One day, as she was careening through the playground in a toy car, a bully approached and pushed her out of the driver’s seat. Luckily for Gabby, her older brother Johnathan was there to help.

  It would not be the last time Gabby would have to deal with bullies.

  Gabby’s childhood became consumed with rolling and tumbling. When she was three, her older sister Arielle taught her how to do a cartwheel. By the very next day, Gabby had moved on to handstands, flips, and other tricky maneuvers. Within a week, she was doing one-handed cartwheels.

  Amazed by her sister’s progress, Arielle told their mom, Natalie Hawkins, that Gabby should start gymnastics lessons. But Natalie worried that her daughter would hurt herself, and she refused.

  Over the next few years, the girls worked hard to wear down their mother’s resistance. And although Natalie remained afraid that Gabby might injure herself doing gymastics, she knew that lessons would help her daughter learn to do the movements properly. Without the supervision of a trained adult, who knew what she would jump off next?

  So when Gabby was six, Natalie signed her up at a local gym that offered weekend gymnastics classes. Soon Gabby was receiving formal instruction for about six hours a week.

  After two years, Gabby was ready to move on to the next level of training. Her mother found another gym that provided more rigorous instruction. The goal there was to train young gymnasts to com
pete and win tournaments at the highest level, including the Olympics.

  At first, Gabby thrived at her new gym. She made friends and learned techniques and strategies from her coaches. But as she improved at gymnastics, Gabby noticed that some of the students began treating her differently. Sometimes she’d see the girls whispering to one another when she entered the locker room. As soon as they saw Gabby, they’d stop talking.

  Then, one day, when it was time to clean the chalk off the uneven bars after class, one of Gabby’s teammates greeted her with a cruel taunt. “Why doesn’t Gabby do it?” the girl asked. “She’s our slave.” Gabby was terribly hurt by the remark, but she didn’t confront the girl or say anything to her instructors. It wasn’t until years later that she found the courage to talk about the incident, though she never forgot about it during that time.

  Another time, one of Gabby’s coaches made fun of her appearance. “She needs a nose job,” he joked in front of the other girls. Once again, Gabby gritted her teeth and continued with practice. But when she got home that night—and on many other nights—she cried alone in her room.

  Gabby knew she’d been bullied, and she suspected it was because she was the only African American girl in the class. But she was afraid that if she spoke up, she’d be isolated even more—maybe even thrown out of the gymnastics program altogether. So she held her tongue and kept the hurtful comments to herself. She didn’t even tell her mother.

  Over time, the bullying took a toll on Gabby’s performance. She finished in tenth place at her first junior gymnastics competition. At another event, she placed sixteenth and failed to qualify for the U.S. national team. In practices, she butted heads with her coaches. Convinced that she needed to test herself, she begged them to let her try out increasingly difficult routines. But where Gabby sought excellence, her coaches seemed satisfied with mediocrity. One time, after Gabby finished in fourth place at a tournament, her coach was amazed.