As a child, I was fortunate to attend a sleepaway camp for five summers, where instead of the usual arts and crafts, I was able to learn circus skills for up to six hours a day. I learned to juggle, unicycle and perform on more types of trapeze than the average person knows exist. Learning to master these difficult and unique skills helped strengthen my self-confidence and apparently also developed my motor skills. At least two Olympians – skater Gracie Gold and skier Mikaela Shiffrin – have been quoted stating that their juggling and unicycling skills have helped get them to where the are today!
Mikaela recalled that they bought a unicycle because Eileen had read that it was good for balance, which she considered a pivotal athletic skill. The Shiffrin children also learned to juggle to improve their coordination.
“We then started going around our block, which was two miles long, riding the unicycle and juggling at the same time,” Mikaela said. “And if I was doing that, then Taylor would be behind me dribbling a soccer ball as he ran around the block.”
Eileen was confident it would pay off, even as she worried what people were saying about her children.
“You would see the neighbors coming out to watch the Shiffrins going around the block juggling on a unicycle,” Eileen said. “I’m sure they thought we were completely nuts.”
But the next summer, Taylor and Mikaela made their travel soccer teams.
As Eileen recalled: “The coach said to me: ‘What did you do? They’re great now.’ And I said, ‘You don’t really want to know.’ ”
I should have been an Olympic athlete – happy 2014 Olympics, everyone!