From Last Place to Champion: A Lesson in Persistence

Ever thought that you had everything against you? So much so that you wouldn’t ever succeed? Simen Krueger sure did.

On Sunday, Norway’s Simen Krueger was competing in the Olympic 30k Skiathlon, when his nightmare became a reality. Only a couple hundred meters into the race, Simen crashed and was under two other competitors. The dream of a podium finish became bleak as Simen saw where he was: last place.

With 67 other skiers in front of him, Simen picked himself back up, and did what he does best: ski. With each stride, Simen didn’t give up hope. In the next 29km, slowly but surely, Simen began overtaking his competitors. The 24-year-old even passed competitors while skiing uphill.

As the finish line drew nearer, Simen overtook the final racer to take first place. In a span of 76 minutes, Simen went on from a disastrous start to win the race with an eight-second lead. Unbelievable!

We love stories like this; the classic victory of an underdog. What’s different here is the amount of persistence Simen displayed. Here are some key takeaways:

Choose your Attitude

"I had to try to keep those (negative) thoughts away; I knew it was going to be extremely hard." -Simen Krueger

We are not always in control of our circumstances, but we are in charge of how we react to it. This doesn’t mean we have to be ignorant of our circumstances, but must be intentional with how we think about them.

When Simen went down, he knew his circumstances. But instead of becoming angry, indifferent, or pitying himself, he chose to keep his spirits up and push forward. By choosing his attitude throughout the duration of the race, he was able to change his circumstances.

We must do the same; to be persistent, we must choose our attitudes.

Eat the Elephant One Bite at a Time

“Think of many things; do one.” -Portuguese proverb

Great leaders don’t suddenly become great with one decision or action. Great leaders are created by consistently making good, small decisions.

I have become overwhelmed at times when I start to tackle big projects. With so much to do, it is easy to get bogged down with the complexity of everything on my list. But to be persistent is to have a bias for action, and tackle large, ambiguous projects one step at a time.

After his crash, it would have been easy for Simen to be overwhelmed with the 67 racers ahead of him. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the end goal, he broke the race down into small tasks he could do. It’s easier to focus on passing the next skier than to think about passing all 67.

How can you focus the pieces of the big picture? You might try to break down any big project into small steps you can tackle on a day-to-day basis. As you do pieces of the puzzle, celebrate the small victories. You’ll be able to keep your head straight as others lose theirs. Practically, I am a major fan of lists. I have fallen in love with Trello, a cloud-based list making app—it’s worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Lean on your Grit

“Direction, not intention, determines destination.” -Andy Stanley

In her powerful TED Talk, Angela Lee Duckworth describes Grit as, “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.”

Even when Simen was facing insurmountable odds, he didn’t want to give up his long-term goal of Olympic success. Simen used grit to persevere.

In his book The Principle of the Path, Andy Stanley argues that the path we are on will lead us to our ultimate destination. A simple concept for a GPS, but powerful concept when applied to life. To accomplish our long-term goals, we must choose to follow a path, then have the grit to continue down the path.

The victorious Simen Krueger // Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

The Bottom Line: When facing adversity, by choosing our attitude, breaking big goals into little tasks, and utilizing grit, we will persevere.

Check out the video of Simen persevering here.