February 17th, 2012
12:52 PM ET
Why Olympians must seize the moment
Welsh runner Iwan Thomas won a silver medal for Great Britain in the 4x400 meters relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
An Olympics is an amazing place to be. I call it a bit of a freak show – you sit in the canteen and you could see a seven-foot Chinese girl who is the best volleyball player in the world, and opposite you'd have an American basketball player you might have watched on television when you were growing up.
All of a sudden you are not only among other athletes you look up to, but the other sportsmen and women who are the best in their chosen field. It's an amazing who's who of the sporting world when you get to an Olympic village, so you try to take all that in and not get too excited. You don't want to burn up too much nervous energy, you've got to remember why you are there – to compete. FULL POST
