We generally recognize that Olympic athletes are accomplished, driven, and talented humans - of course, in sport. But often they display drive and talent beyond the playing field, too. Some have been - or are - accomplished musicians. Others, not so much despite best - or lackluster - efforts.

From classical and opera, to country and reggae, and pop and hip-hop, the breadth of music is represented well in the annals of Olympic musicians. Let's take a look at some history of Olympic athletes making music.

​The Hits

Success stories can be found as far back as Micheline Ostermeyer (London 1948), who fielded a long career as a pianist after winning three Olympic medals. Anne Pashley (Melbourne 1956) was known as the "fastest singer in the garden" as she transitioned from sprint track success to a 30-year profession as an opera soprano. Martin Lauer (Rome 1960) was a well-received country singer after a sprint relay gold medal. Runner Madeline Manning (Mexico City 1968, Munich 1972, Montreal 1976) continues a gospel career in her chaplain work.

Basketball star Wayman Tisdale (Los Angeles 1984) released eight jazz albums before his 2009 death. Short track speed skater Cathy Turner (Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994) was busy hustling together a singing career before her star turn at the Games. Sprinter Jon Drummond (Sydney 2000, Atlanta 1996) had a successful stint embedded with the Kirk Franklin & The Family gospel choir. Middle-distance runner Joanne Fenn (Athens 2004) had a music career and appeared on Fame Academy ahead of her Games appearance. You can count Vanessa Vanakorn (er, Vanessa-Mae), too, as the violinist had a prolific musical run before an appearance in Sochi 2014's Alpine skiing competition.

More recently, basketball players Carlos Arroyo (2004) and Damian Lillard (Tokyo 2020), as Dame D.O.L.L.A., have established respect in reggaeton and hip-hop, respectively. Triple jumper Will Claye (London 2012, Rio 2016, 2020) has serious ambitions for his own hip-hop career, and four-time Olympic Alpine skier Tina Maze (Salt Lake 2002, Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, 2014) had a top Slovenian hit for her pop debut. Hard music is represented, too. Downhill skiing specialist Dominik Paris (2010, 2014, Pyeongchang 2018, Beijing 2022) is an established heavy metal artist, and luger Igor Lobanov (Albertville 1992) has been in Slot since 2002.

From ice hockey, Henrik Lundqvist (2006, 2010, 2014) is well-known as a guitarist and a member (with John McEnroe!) of The Noise Upstairs band. Fellow NHL'er Ryan Miller (2010, 2014) has also been known to dabble in rock music as well.

Olympic Dreams (2019)
A Quick Film Review

​Watching 2019's Olympic Dreams - co-written and starring comedian Nick Kroll and actress and Rio 2016 Olympian Alexi Pappas - is bittersweet, peeking behind-the-scenes at a slice of previous Olympic life, through the lens of a fictional friendship in an Olympic Village.

Produced as part of the International Olympic Committee's 'Oly Art' program, Kroll, Pappas, and director & co-writer Jeremy Teicher received extraordinary on-the-ground access at Pyeongchang 2018, particularly in the Olympic Village, that showcases a unique moment in time and place.

As cross-country skier Penelope, Pappas offers a familiar doe-eyed portrayal of a perhaps too-sheltered athlete. Her early 'meet-cute' moments with Kroll's Ezra, a last-minute volunteer dentist for the athletes, are awkward yet promising.

Will they find romance? It's complicated...Ezra has a fiancee (maybe?), and Penelope is lonely and at-a-loss for a sense of what to do now that her competition is done. It's at times hard to buy Penelope's innocence - is there really no social support system for U.S. athletes from Team USA for her to leverage? Could she really not have known who Gus Kenworthy is, arguably one of the more famous athletes at those Games? Surely her experience in global and domestic training and competition has steeled her a bit for the environment of an Olympics?

That plot is a mere sideshow, though, to the real star of Olympic Dreams - a look inside an Olympic Village and the dormitory life of an athlete. We see a gym, a laundry room, the cafeteria, a recreation room, all with slices of athlete interactions. Particularly charming is Kenworthy, with Penelope, using the cafeteria to scope out potential hookups and plan a room party. (It is just like a dorm!) And, we get a cross-section of Olympians - Andreas Veerpalu, Marjolein Decroix, Nico Porteous, amongst others - as guest appearances in the dental office and other facilities. Freestyle skier Morgan Schild appears as a dormmate to Penelope, shining along with Kenworthy as comfortable in front of the camera.

Current pandemic protocols will assumedly make Beijing 2022 Olympic Village life more austere, as was seen at Tokyo 2020, making Olympic Dreams feel a bit like nostalgia for a viewer. It's unclear where the Oly Art program stands now given Covid-19, but hopefully future Games' art-in-residences offer more unique insights into the stories of Olympians. Olympic Dreams had me wanting more!

Total Olympics (2021)
A Quick Book Review

I'm so glad to have found - belatedly - Jeremy Fuchs' 2020 publication "Total Olympics", a compilation of 'Every Obscure, Hilarious, Dramatic, and Inspiring Tale Worth Knowing', as its subtitle aptly puts it. Although it was published in advance of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games, I only recently made it through - call it my own Olympic postponement!

As an ardent Olympics fan, I'll eat up all the facts and fun anecdotes I can find. And, Total Olympics is in a sense an homage to the spirit of David Wallechinsky's The Complete Book of the Olympics, long the standard of Olympic encyclopedia. For those missing The Complete Book since the last edition ahead of Sochi 2014, Fuchs' work is a good introduction to the broad spectrum of rich stories that the Games provide.

Many of the tales in Total Olympics​ will be familiar to those deeply experienced with Olympic history, but Fuchs does offer moments of unique perspective, particularly in his division of certain chapters by Olympian siblings, Olympic 'firsts', Olympic criminals, or Eastern Bloc athletes, for example.

And, of course, reporting of post-2014 Olympic facts takes us further than Wallechinsky had. Witness Bode Miller's unfortunate turn at commentating and Manteo Mitchell's broken leg exploits.

Although, certain retrospectives of older Olympians and moments were revelations, too. Some particular 'new', deeper insights for me included gymnastics legend Laryssa Latynina's proud and dominant personality, the depth of Denver 1976's ineptitude (those Games were moved to Innsbruck), the resilience of gymnast Agnes Keleti, rower Henry Pearce's face-ff with a family of ducks in 1928, Lamine Gueye's breakthrough skiing, equestrian Humberto Mariles' 'colorful' post-Games career, the drive of Melbourne 1956 champion Tom Courtney, and the fact that skijoring was a one-time demonstration sport.

Notable ancient Olympians - Herodotus, Leonidas, etc. - and Paralympians  - particularly Trischa Zorn and Marlon Shirley - get proper recognition, too, which is a feature not found in cursory Olympic research, including Wallechinsky's work.

But the real pleasure for me was a sense of kindred spirit of fandom that is the crux of Total Olympics. The perseverance of Team USA's debut women's swim team at Antwerp 1920 - "but they persisted..." - and the everlasting dignity of discus thrower Al Oerter - "There is something about the Games that gets in your blood. All those people from those various nations, all with the same purpose...I can really get charged up about the Olympics" - showcase the excitement and emotion of the Olympics. Thanks, Total Olympics - I'll visit and revisit those stories always.

Splash! 10,000 Years of Swimming (2020)
A Quick Book Review

Swimming, like running, often seems so rudimentary an activity that one might take for granted the idea that it has always been a means of exercise or at least fun.

But author - and passionate swimmer - Howard Means takes readers into the surprising and, at times, charming, history of swimming in Splash!, published in 2020 and a look at humans' continuing evolving relationship with water as a means of activity.

Turns out, the practice of swimming or splashing around in the ocean or a lake wasn't always seen with favor. Although there are records of swimming from ancient Egypt, the bible, and the history of the Greek and Roman empires, the idea fell out of favor in Europe as the Middle Ages took hold. Sanitation fears and a puritanical streak inhibited would-be swimmers from exploring water - being able to swim, or stay afloat, was proof of witchcraft, after all.

Edward Digby's The Art of Swimming in 1587 helped mark a turning point, though, by emphasizing the very practical use of swimming as life-saving in an era heavy with sailing. And off Means leads us into the renaissance of swimming over the next hundreds of years - as exercise, as fashion, as leisure, as socio-political indicator.

Growing pains still exist. The struggle to integrate swimming in the U.S. as part of the civil rights movement and the ramifications of Black Americans' historical inability to access a pool is covered seriously and importantly.

It does take Splash! until chapter 14 to really dive into Olympic swimming. As one of the original modern Olympics' sports from 1896, swimming has been a mainstay on the Games' program. But Means underlines the evolution the definition of swimming has gone through - gone are underwater dives and obstacle courses, and refinement brought swimming pools (!), the backstroke in 1904 , women's competition in 1912, and the butterfly in relatively-recent 1956. And, still today, tweaking of what constitutes an appropriate turn, or stroke, or kick, or swimsuit, or depth of the pool's water continues.

For this die-hard Olympics fan, there could always be more comment of swimming from a Games' angle, but Means does revisit heroes such as Gertude Eberle, Johnny Weissmuller, and Duke Kahanamoku, who all played a part in pushing the sport's popularity. Memories of iconic Olympic moments - Jason Lezak's Beijing 2008 anchor leg, Jon Sieben's upset comeback win at Los Angles 1984, Team USA's lone women's gold medal at Montreal 1976 - are remembered. Michael Phelps, as the embodiment of an ideal 'swimmer's body', is featured, as is Donna de Varona, the would-be multi-Games star had swimming in the '60s been as lucrative as it is today.

One fascinating anecdote presented is the 1973 cultural/sport visit by U.S. swimmers in China, seen as a provocation by some, including the I.O.C. Had there not been contention on earlier attempts, swimming - and not ping pong - may have been the lead-in for a diplomatic breakthrough with the People's Republic.

p.s. Did you relaize that water polo was one of the first official team sport in the Olympics, at Paris 1900? Of those at those Games (cricket, basque pelota, rugby union), it's the only one still around.
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Splash! is a fun, engaging, and at times sobering, read that gives good perspective of the sport's origins and growth. It being a work of passion by Means is evident, and the invitation to join him in the celebration of swimming is clear. Count me in.

King Richard (2021)
A Quick Film Review

King Richard: Venus, Serena and a Plan for Greatness keeps its lens on 'King' Richard Williams, but it is undoubtedly about Venus and Serena Williams as well, and their march toward professional tennis stardom.

That's good, because any story about the Williams sisters' rise would need to also focus on their father. Especially leading up to and during their early pro years , Williams was a famously constant presence and a favorite media subject.

Outspoken, confident, and determined, Williams guided his daughters' growth and training according to his own plan (open stance!); eschewing 'traditional' tennis advice while navigating challenges from a gang-riddled neighborhood and an initially indifferent tennis establishment to raise his daughters according to his vision.

As Williams, Will Smith is enough of a star actor to handle the the constant spotlight King Richard places on his character And the performance pretty accurately touches upon most of the notes tennis fans and media remember of the some-might-call-stubborn Williams. One sensitive issue possibly not explored enough is the racial component of how the Williams were - still are - viewed. How much of the struggle Williams the patriarch encountered in bucking the system was racially based. It's an unavoidable thought not underlined here.

That said, King Richard is a reminder of how unique and inspiring the start to Venus' and Serena's careers is - from those early days far away from the perceived country club sensibilities of so many tennis prodigies, to the long dominance they've enjoyed on court. 

Between them, the Williams sisters have won 30 Grand Slam singles titles, and Serena is often considered the best ever. Each also has an Olympics singles title, and together, three in doubles. They couldn't have done any of it without 'King' Richard.

p.s. With the recent 'controversy' around men's tour player Stefanos Tsitsipas' bathroom breaks, it was amusing and timely to see the (gamesmanship?) issue addressed in a recreation of Venus Williams' second-ever professional match in 1994 against veteran Artanxa Sanchez Vicario, whose own break was credited as rattling Williams.