Toby Brooks

There was, of course, Lindsey Vonn's tragic injury near the starting gates in what would likely be her final Olympic moments.

There was the heartbreak of American skater Ilya Malinin, the quad god, whose plans for Olympic gold were dashed just moments into his free skate, where two falls dropped him from serious contender to an eventual eighth-place finish.

Or who could forget the infectious smile, the liberated and free performances, and sometimes R-rated celebratory outbursts of skating prodigy turned Olympic champion Alyssa Liu.

She'd endured a rigorous training regimen to the point of walking away from the sport entirely until she finally reconnected with her love for skating and she found her way back to the ice.

Free from those chains of doubt and expectation and perfectionism, she competed with such, there's really no other word for it, just joy.

And you couldn't help but be moved by watching her skate.

There was all this and more at the 26 Winter Games.

But the story I came across that I found the most inspirational and the most incredible and the most undone was Sarah Warren.

The long track speed skater had made the team through an unconventional path.

She'd been a Division I soccer player at the University of Illinois.

That seemed like a curious way to find yourself on Olympic ice.

But it wasn't just that unexpected path that most made me search for more info on Sarah.

It was her story.

Ten surgeries, the first at the age of 13.

ACLs in both knees, an ankle injury that nearly derailed her 2026 Olympic dreams.

I found a CNN article that moved me nearly to tears where a gritty, tough, resilient, collegiate soccer player, Sarah, looked at the facts surrounding her athletic dreams and made a vulnerable, gutting, excruciating assessment.

As the article quotes, she recounted, quote, as she was wheeled back for her second ACL surgery, Warren looked at her mother, Catherine, and said, I don't think I can do this.

End quote.

I don't think I can do this.

That's the absolute eye of the hurricane that is a purpose storm.