210: Olympic Glory with Trent Dimas

On this episode of ‘Finding your Summit’ podcast, host Mark Pattison, former NFL Player, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist and Mountaineer & SI Executive has now climbed the Seven Summits. He talks with guest Trent Dimas, an incredible Gymnast Gold Medalist. Trent talks about his experience as a Gymnast and shares his Olympic moment and performance.
Listen to “EP 210: Olympic Glory with Trent Dimas” on Spreaker.

Episode Highlights

• 03.28: – Trent talks about how his mother and father guided him and says they were at every single competition and workout.
• 05.58: – Mark inquires about how Trent got into Gymnastics.
• 08.36: – As per Trent, we have to be mentally & physically tough, and finally we have to be willing to do what other people aren’t and there’s no guarantee that we will succeed.
• 11.28: – According to Trent, the majority of female athletes, female gymnasts and some of the male gymnasts are all being homeschooled.
• 13.02: – He states that being tall in Gymnastics changes the trajectory of how we can flip, twist and turn our body.
• 15.54: – Trent shares that it was the hardest decision of his life to decide whether or not to train for the Olympics or stay at the University of Nebraska.
• 18.15: – He mentions that there was nobody in the United States at that time who left a college scholarship to train for the Olympics and he had done something that was completely different.
• 21.49: – Mark asks Trent about when he goes to make a gymnastics team — is he actually doing all six different events?
• 23.15: – In Trent’s opinion, we can’t do things that are out of the norm and he certainly was out of the norm so, it is different.
• 26.27: – Trent shares an incident about George Steinbrenner, who admires his work and sent him $5,000.
• 28.12: – Mark asks Trent to describe his Olympic journey which ended-up phenomenal. He stepped up and delivered with a gold medal performance.
• 30.33: – The host states that going last or close to last is definitely seen as an advantage.
• 32.17: – Trent recalls an incident during the Olympics when Robert came and said “you’re our last hope for a gold medal”.
• 35.13: – Trent talks about an interesting factor during Olympic events which made him hurt and there were no American judges on the event.
• 38.25: – He states, he had that big double flip over the high bar where he caught his chin.
• 40.28: – Trent describes that he enjoyed the moment and not that he had believed that he had won, but that he did the best possible routine leaving everything out there no matter what, for the right reason.
• 42.23: – Mark highlights the gold medal incident about Trent.
• 44.26: – Mark wants to encourage everybody to go and check out this video of Trent Dimas on YouTube, a performance like this happens in once in a lifetime.

Three Key Points

1. When we see our parents working so hard, there’s a responsibility which is a reciprocal responsibility they’re providing for us and we have to make good on that.
2. It’s an important thing — we’ve got to have that base and should provide that to our kids.
3. We all are expected to do two different types of routine apart from all six events; one is compulsory routine which is the same routine that everyone in the world did, to see who is best when they all were doing the same skills; and then second, there was an optional risking our own meetup routine that was based on a set of rules and regulations.

Tweetable Quotes

“In today’s environment, it’s tough to be the best in the world.” – Trent Dimas

“I kind of, I was one of the borderline guys, that there was a team that made six I was either, fifth, sixth, seventh, I was either right in or right out.” – Trent Dimas

“I was coming through the ranks. I couldn’t use what other kids were using they were using pure muscle to go through things. So biomechanically I had to learn everything perfect.” – Trent Dimas

“I would say, 80 to 90% of the college coaches in this country wanted me to fail, because it went against everything that they had set up for decades.” – Trent Dimas

“And you’ll notice that today people really don’t do the triple somersault anymore because you have so much momentum about 10,000 pounds of pressure per square inch as your landing, and then you have the momentum going backwards.” – Trent Dimas

“I remember looking up as the judges were calculating my score, and then you saw the first two guys that were tied for first you just see their names, dropped down shrunk, and you heard that noise. And you were like, oh my gosh, did I just move into first place in the world. It was, it was just amazing. It was, it was amazing.” – Trent Dimas

“It’s gold but there are a lot of games along the way.” – Trent Dimas

“Well, you. You did your best when your best was required and certainly when you’re going through those moments you know just before you got on the high bar, you got in the zone, and you know really doesn’t matter how you get there, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. But you were able to capture that one moment in time and the beautiful thing is, you know you own that moment for the rest of your life, so now you get a, you get a gold medal.” – Mark Pattison