I spent the spring of 2007 and the summer of 2008 mentoring young men with aspirations of making an name (and a salary) for themselves competing in one the most demanding sports in the world, cycling.

Although I had never aspired to be the best cyclist in the world, I did have some insight into the dreams of young competitive cyclists because I was once convinced I would be the best alpine ski-racer in the world. I may have been single-minded in my approach to my childhood sport of ski racing, but it was only because that is what it took to be competitive at an international level.

Cycling is no different, and through common friends I found an article about Sheldon Dean, an aspiring professional cyclist who is coming to terms with the reality of so many athletic pursuits: Success is never a foregone conclusion and it requires an immense amount of financial, emotional and physical support.

Here is link to an article about Sheldon: http://bikefag.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/sheldon-deeny-from-pro-cyclist-to-dishwasher/

If you have ever dreamed of what it might take to make it as a professional cyclist, please read this article on Sheldon. Cycling is arguably the toughest sport in the world and the amount a sacrifice it takes to excel in this sport is second to none.

I think it would surprise Sheldon that his life events thus far are NOT uncommon. His narrative is extremely similar to that of other teens involved in eurocentric sports - ie cycling, skiing and soccer.

A lot of kids that excelled at a euro-centric sport at a young age have very similar experiences and their stories are never heard. For every American pro that makes a name for themselves in a euro-centric sport there are at least 10 kids that put in the same amount of work went to all the same races and did just as well (sometimes better) with just as much talent and hard work but never "made it" because a bit of bad luck along the way.

There's a huge element of chance in sport and the fact that the narratives that are heard the most, ie Lance "overcoming all the odds", make us think that hard work and dedication always prevails...but that's not really the case for guys like Sheldon, sometimes people get the short straw - they lose financial support, they loose emotional support, they get injured etc... and they are forced to "give up the dream" of becoming a standout at the highest level in their respective sport.

Unfortunately nobody in the press likes to tell stories about athletes that "tried really hard but didn't make it" because they don't leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling, they just make you realize that nothing in life is a sure thing. For those of us that have given every ounce of our being to a sport and never made it to where we expected we would make in that sport, it feels like we may have wasted years of our life pursuing a mythical dream. However, those experiences lead to invaluable insights and they are not "wasted" if we can use them to help others reach their goals. Anyone who has been an elite athlete for many years knows how much sacrifice goes into an athletic pursuit.

I think Sheldon will make an excellent coach, he has started coaching already but I think if he has a very small number of intelligent and motivated clients he has a lot of practical insight to offer them.

Any difficult sport which requires many hours of training on a daily basis has an emotional component to it: human's are not machines (all though we compare ourselves to machines all the time), if individuals don't feel like there efforts are being recognized or supported they will loose motivation. Support is such a huge component of any serious athletic endeavor but it is easily overlooked.

Unfortunately, the ones that realize how important support is are usually the ones that lost it somewhere along the way...