The Calgary native, who now calls Toronto home, was at peak performance in 2010 as he clocked just over 10 seconds in the 100m sprint; making him one of the fastest Canadians of all time. The mental strength and discipline that it takes to get to that level, that speed, is unimaginable. Knowing that he was on track for making the national team for the London 2012 Games, he was pushing hard. He was devouring any obstacle that presented itself and turning them into achieving his Olympic dreams and goals.
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Then, in 2012, it all changed. Effah was the defending 2-time national champion and he was set to compete at the 2012 Olympic trials. The expectation was for him to place first or second so he would be eligible for the London Olympics. Only Effah knew that 54 days prior he had torn his left quad muscle while competing at a diamond league event in Italy. He had been in treatment every day up until the day of the race and his feet hadn’t hit the track during that entire period.
He figured that the power of the crowd roaring with cheers would push him though, it was a mental game. But there was no level of support that would help him overcome that kind of injury – and he finished 8th.
As crushing as that was for Sam, it wasn’t enough to extinguish his fire. Every failure, every pitfall, has a silver lining and he wasn’t going to settle for anything lower than gold. He knows how to set goals and he knows how to smash them.
Read the post here https://olympic.ca/2019/01/16/the-hunger-for-more-ignites-the-soul-of-rbc-olympian-sam-effah/