He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Muhammad Ali, Olympic light heavyweight champion, Rome 1960

It’s a different Mohammed in the picture, Arif Mohammed Khan. And he is not from the USA but from Kashmir, administered by India.

He was the only participant from his country taking part in the Winter Olympic Games that just finished, representing 1.4 billion people. Because his father ran a ski shop in Kashmir. Check it out.

His first run was last Sunday in the men’s giant slalom event. He finished in one minute 22 seconds, 19.42 seconds behind the winner, Switzerland’s Odermatt.

You don’t have to be the best but you have to keep trying.

Yesterday, we had a meeting of the An Saol Family Support and Advocay Group in the An Saol Café, now in the An Saol Foundation Centre in Santry. Guest Speaker was Áine Flynn, Director of the Decision Support Service, DSS, that supports the implementation of the “new” Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015, abolishing the Ward of Court system based on the Victorian (!) Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act 1871. Yes: 1871. You can listen back to Áine’s presentation and the following Q&A session here. Access Passcode: Ansaol!01

Áine gave us a very good overview of the Act and responded really well to the questions some of the 20 session participants had, in person or online.

I have the impression, though, that this now seven year-old act (!) that has to be amended (!) before it’ll be commenced in June of this year, is a bit like Arif. Only that Arif has already made it over the finishing line while the act still has a bit to go before we’ll be able to say the same about it. And as all Winter Olympians know: there is always the risk of falling or being disqualified.

Pádraig had a good week in An Saol. He started to use his Pforzheim-made arm splint again to stretch his left arm, surprisingly with relatively little effort.

Stretching works if you do it on a regular basis.

The ancient Olympics were held during a religious festival honouring Zeus. Today they honour those who keep trying, those who never give up, those who are courageous enough to take risks. Because if they didn’t they would accomplish nothing in life.