YouTube Taught Him To Throw The Javelin And Now He Has An Olympic Medal
YouTube is the great platform for sharing videos , and that means it’s also a useful tool for learning. On this platform you can upload both theoretical classes enlivened with animations and audio-essays, reflections and even informative documentary pieces.
But… Can you also learn a sport modality? The Kenyan Julius Yego He is living proof that the answer to this question is yes, because starting from a YouTube tutorial he has won an Olympic medal in the last edition of the Olympic Games.
Many of the poorest countries in Africa export athletes specialized in running, among other things because the conditions to start training in this sport are not expensive.. Elite athletes can have specialized training centers , the attention of personal trainers and a follow-up plan that includes nutrition and exercises, but the first months are about finding a few minutes a day to run. Julius Yego tried to make a future for himself by running the 100 meter dash at times when he did not have to be helping his parents on the farm, but when he saw that he was not obtaining the expected results, he opted for the javelin.
Javelin throwing is a sport that requires a greater investment of money, but Julius solved this problem by manufacturing his own material At that point he was able to begin to develop the basic skills to throw the javelin, although his lack of resources posed a serious inconvenience: he could not find a coach to help him.
Since he couldn’t find help in his home country, Julius turned to that space where physical borders disappear: the Internet. If he wanted to become the next Andreas Thorkildsen He had to learn on his own strategies and methods to improve in the discipline of javelin throwing, without depending on anyone in particular.
And that’s how he ended up on YouTube, the place where he could watch Thorkildsen’s releases over and over again. This athlete’s videos were transformed, without his knowledge, into a tutorial that he was using by someone in very poor training conditions. The example of Andreas Thorkildsen had such a strong impact on Julius’s life that His videos were transformed into a kind of virtual high-performance center
Julius’s progress
Transforming learning from videos into a habit, J Ulius went on to win his first national title a few months after starting ; but there was not much competition, as javelin throwing was not popular in Kenya. The real challenge came in the 2012 Olympic Games, in which Julius was the first representative of his country to appear in this sport. In that year, thanks to his efforts he managed to be among the two best pitchers in the world; a preview of what was to come and his promising career.
In the year 205, Julius Yego won a world champion title, throwing the javelin at 92.72 meters and creating the third mark in history , being the world record of 98.48. At the recent Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, he won silver.
The story of Julius Yego gives a sample of the possibilities that can arise from the combination of efforts and the use of new technologies available to almost everyone. Knowing how to manage the latter and promote the former can be the key to ensuring that the lives of many people are structured by important and meaningful projects for them, as long as you can count on the means and references whose example you can follow.
