One way or another, Olympic athletes give their all.  Plugging into this degree of intensity can be hard to take, I’ll admits. Most of the time when I watch competitions, the only empathy techniques I use are the ones to switch empathy off.

But the bright side of being an empath is being able to experience world class athletes with their energy turned up full blast. Here are some of the things I noticed at the 2002 Winter Olympics:

SARAH HUGHES

IRINA SLUTSKAYA

MICHELLE KWAN

JANICA KOSTELIC

Sarah Hughes (click for photo)

Empathic readings shed some light on the upset victory of Sarah Hughes over Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya. Even to the non-empathic eye, it was obvious that the youngest contestant brought joy and freshness to her skating. But empathic readings, as always, are an opportunity to revise first impressions, exploring reality in greater depth and detail. I’ll describe what I noticed about all three skaters at the time of the Olympics, beginning with the gold medalist:

Excitement pulsed through her slender body like the heartbeat of a throbbing bird. PHYSICALLY, Sarah is one of the least grounded athletes I’ve seen. Rather than involving herself in sport through sensuality, she’s more like a puppeteer who pulls the strings on her own body, making it dance to the tune of her intellect.

SEXUALLY, she’s pristine. Her strength as a skater doesn’t come from sexuality, nor is her virginal quality something she’d flaunt a la the early Britney Spears. This is the real thing: purity.

INTELLECTUALLY, Sarah Hughes showed talent that was off the chart. Genuine intellectual curiosity, analytical awareness, and the blend of heart along with mind are some of the distinctive abilities that this girl carries from a soul level.

EMOTIONALLY, she held off all feelings while competing, an act of will for which her intellect can take credit.

COMMUNICATION was inner, as if the skater was exploring what she could do. It’s fascinating to observe the degree to which this 16-year-old could downplay her ego. Figure skating is usually about showing off to some degree, yet this American skater displayed neither self-consciousness nor the intent to perform. Hughes had the presence of mind (and the great wisdom) to skate for herself.

SPIRITUALLY, Hughes wasn’t asking for help. She did this job on her own, surrendering to her gifts and a degree of focus that is as extraordinary as her skating. Joy may be what people saw, yet inwardly I don’t think her performance was about emotion any more than it was about inspiration. She simply skated her best, focused - bullseye! -- in the moment.

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Irina Slutskaya (click for photo)

"I beat my nerves today," the Russian skater told a Washington Post reporter after she skated in her short program. Olympic athletes, like actors, can work hard to hide their feelings. When attuning empathically to Slutskaya, I was curious whether I’d find nerves - emotions—as her area of greatest intensity.

PHYSICALLY, like many a figure skater, Slutskaya didn’t project a strong presence. Anorexia will, of course, do that. And so long as the public demands that women in professions like skating be unnaturally slender, we’ll find one distorted aura after another. Only those who are naturally rail thin can project their full physical energy through their bodies.

SEXUALLY, the silver medallist showed considerable charisma, although she was not consciously taking advantage of this while she skated. (If she were, that effort would register empathically.)

INTELLECTUAL functioning was the strongest gift, as with Sarah Hughes. Irina Slutskaya’s version specialized in clarity and willpower.

EMOTIONALLY this part of the Soviet skater’s aura is where she really was singing. What a tender, vulnerable, feminine heart! It couldn’t have contrasted more dramatically with the toughness in the rest of her aura. All the training in the world, not to mention efforts to squelch "nerves," cannot give someone emotional depth of this character. The hidden poetry in this skater’s heart moved me to tears.

COMMUNICATION was a small factor for Slutskaya. When she attempted to squelch her nerves, I suspected that most of the force was applied to the part of her that might have expressed her nerves. It felt to me as if she had stuck the cork in a bottle.

SPIRITUALLY, Slutskaya was another do-it-yourselfer. The difference between her and Hughes in this area, is that the American skater appeared to be benignly indifferent to spirituality - often the case when a person is successful on her own, with a relatively easy life - whereas the Russian skater may not have been indifferent at all. It could be that, like many of my students (and many who aren’t my students) she just hadn’t yet found her way in to genuine spirituality. So many people don’t know how to make a connection, reminding me of an image from the poet Keats about standing forlornly outside a shop window, nose pressed against the glass, looking at the delicacies within. Whatever the circumstances, when exploring Slutskaya at the level of spirituality, I felt first a stab of anguish, then a stab of fear.

I’m so glad that she won, at least, the silver.

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Michelle Kwan (click for photo)

She took her upset loss philosophically, according to interviews. But what was it really like for her, skating with such high expectations, under such pressure? Before connecting empathically, I looked forward to the chance to know more about her.

PHYSICALLY, the bronze medallist showed far more vitality than her competitors. In addition to the sheer amount of physical energy, there was an impressive refinement to her way of relating to physical life. Kwan may be stuck with a bronze medal, this time around, but her everyday perception is of a higher frequency than other professional skaters.

SEXUALLY, Kwan was similar to her competitors. Those women in couples skating have very different auras, let me tell you!

INTELLECTUALLY, this American skater shows both intelligence and poise. The latter was particularly impressive. Experiencing this degree of inner serenity made me stop for a blissful second. I was reminded that, at a potter’s wheel, you can’t center the clay until you feel inwardly balanced. "So that’s how she handles those twirls!" I thought. (If you’ve guessed that I know more about empathy techniques than skating lingo, the secret’s out now.)

EMOTIONALLY, Kwan felt grim. Connecting with her, I was reminded of the emotional courage it takes to compete at the Olympic level. Congealed pain, unresolved disappointment were hanging in this skater’s heart, and I so admire her resolve to skate through it. From the bottom of my heart, I wish her success at healing this, including the new layer of pain added with the bitter victory of the bronze medal.

COMMUNICATION for Kwan fascinated me. Self-expression was limited for her, as for Slutskaya and Hughes. Yet more communication emanated from her than her two rivals put together. The quality of that communication? Rage. "Do not go gentle into that good night/ but rage, rage against the breaking of the light." counseled the distinctly non-athletic poet Dylan Thomas. Rage can keep a person going, and I believe that’s where Kwan found her strength as she struggled to skate her best.

SPIRITUALLY she reached out. At this time, I suspect, she reached without opening up; it’s the kind of anguished prayer that sends out a question but doesn’t know, yet, how to listen for the answer. One way or another, however, every prayer is answered. Anyone who has known heartbreak, surely, wishes for comfort to flow to the talented Michelle Kwan.

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Janica Kostelic (click for photo)

Pronounce her name "yahn-EET-zah KO-stah-litch" and say it with admiration because the Croatian athlete won four medals. Watching her ski, I was fascinated by a rare gift in her root chakra. She becomes one with nature: the slope, the snow. Joining with her as she races made me feel ecstatic. Turning up the speed of one’s skiing is relative easy to do when you feel as though you’re intimately a part of the landscape, moving through it as effortlessly as snow falling from the sky.

I’ve heard that fishing and hunting can switch on a sense of oneness with nature, but Kostelic goes far beyond this. Her technique is so second nature, her body so fit, and her awareness so clear that she can play with the mechanics of speed.

Once plugged in, she just activates her desire to make time move quickly and there she is. A neat trick, if you can do it!

At the NBC Olympics website, her story is there to read, and it’s inspiring. The single most amazing fact is that Kostelic "traveled to the Adriatic Sea to do some free diving without oxygen to depths of 30 meters (approximately 100 feet), which, according to one of her associates, ‘helps you not to panic.’"

Judging from her skiing, she’s broken through the skiers psychic equivalent of the sound barrier. Her aura is huge overall. Joining with her empathically was a rare treat. And nearly as impressive as the root-chakra physical fearlessness is Janica Kostelic’s third eye. Here’s someone who knows how to open up to God, moving in trust, in flow.

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All readings on this web site represent the author’s subjective perceptions only, and are offered for the purpose of entertainment.

The aura readings here use the techniques described in Aura Reading Through All Your Senses and Empowered by Empathy.

The face readings use the system of Face Reading Secrets (R) in The Power of Face Reading.

Information about expression of the soul through personal life relates to Rose Rosetree’s video, Thrill Your Soul: Inspiration for Choosing Your Work and Relationships. Only 1 in 300 people today makes choices that align the life to the soul. Anyone can learn to do so and, when a strong connection is made, it shows in the aura.