Cameron MYLER (USA)

Being an Olympian doesn’t just mean that I participated in the largest sporting event in the world. It’s shorthand for understanding that sport is one of the few things that connects everyone on the planet; being committed to fair play, embracing the values of excellence, friendship and respect, and using sport to make positive change in the world. It also meant testing my physical and mental limits on a daily basis. It means that I’m part of a global family for whom sport is more than just about competitions.

I have always embraced the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. To me, excellence has never meant just being the best on any given day. I know that I achieved my own personal excellence, which has been a guiding force in all aspects of my life since retiring from competitive sport. The respect I learned though sport has also dramatically impacted my life. And for me, friendship goes far beyond the individual people I’ve met while competing. It’s the magic of athletes from around the world gathering together in one place every four years.

I have had so many conversations with people about the Olympic Games being more than just a sports competition! Many of them have never met an Olympic athlete before, so I feel an extra sense of responsibility to explain that the Olympic Games are much more than just the medal count or what happens on the playing field during the 17 days of competition. I describe the impact that participating in the Olympic Games has had on my life and explain that it has nothing to do with what place I finished in.

To appreciate every moment of the journey. It’s easy to focus on the big goals, but those kinds of goals are only reached through daily, weekly, yearly effort and many, many moments of hard work and not giving up. I competed in luge because I loved the sport – the exhilaration of the rare perfect run, the travel, the opportunity to meet new people, experience new cultures, and expand my world view. I would not trade a single moment of it.

Art and sport are intimately linked in my opinion, insofar as both activities lead to self-discovery. For a long time, I thought that sport and painting were a way to escape and forget. But now I know that, far from being a means of escape, they’re resources that help us to build ourselves and feel alive. With time and experience, I think that these two practices have forced me to concentrate, refocus and therefore get closer to my true self.

I’m an ambassador for Kids Play International, which uses sport to promote gender equity in countries impacted by genocide. I’m also an ambassador for Athlete Ally, which seeks to promote inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in sport.

I’m currently taking a coaching certification course, with the intention of being able to help athletes figure out what’s next and how they can shine even after they’ve retired from sport.