It's been seven years since he was the most decorated Olympic gymnast in U.S. history. But the Peter Vidmar spending the Thanksgiving holidays skiing in Park City doesn't look appreciably different from the Peter Vidmar who won two gold medals and one silver medal in Los Angeles in 1984 - the one and only Olympic Games where American men gymnasts have struck gold.
Vidmar retired from active competition after '84, at the age of 23. But in the years since, he has nonetheless found a way to successfully avoid an 8-to-5 job and, not only that, find an excuse to mount the pommel horse from time to time.In his post-Olympic life he has landed as a motivational speaker.
He has come to realize that when an Olympic champion performs and talks, whole companies look and listen.
"I never planned on doing this as a living," says Vidmar. "Until after the Olympics I never even knew people did this."
But one talk about the Olympics led to another, and another, and now Vidmar is in demand like Dale Carnegie used to be.
In the most recent issue of Successful Meetings magazine, Vidmar ranked among America's top 10 most sought-after motivational speakers. Others on the list included Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, New York Knicks coach Pat Riley, Chrysler Corp. chairman Lee Iacocca and Tom Peters, the best-selling author of "In Search of Excellence."
Also making the top 10 were Peter Ueberroth, Zig Ziegler, author Harvey McKay, who wrote "Swim With the Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive," and Vietnam POW veterans Charlie Plumb and Gerry Coffee.
"There are two coaches on the list, Holtz and Riley," says Vidmar. "I'm the only athlete."
Vidmar's most popular motivational address is one he calls his R.O.V. speech. "R.O.V stands for risk, originality and virtuosity," he explains. "What I do is I actually perform on a pommel horse and I talk about risk-taking, about falling and making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. Then I talk about innovation and creativity. In my sport that means stop watching the other guy and take your own initiative. Virtuosity means that you approach your own perfection.
"That's basically what it is. It's about fifty percent content and fifty percent standup comedy."
To date, a lot of people in a lot of places have been impressed. The speaker's circuit has sent Vidmar around the world. In a couple of weeks, a group in Malaysia will get the R.O.V. pommel horse routine.
In his own subtle way, Vidmar has emerged as one of the most successful post-Olympics athletes in the country. In addition to his speaking, he also does endorsements and promotional activity for Pedigree pet foods, Xerox, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and he does television commentary.
And yet, he did not go into the '84 Games with so much as a prospective agent lined up. On the one hand, there was Carl Lewis, the budding entrepreneur. On the other hand, there was Vidmar.
"I remember I had teammates lining up agents before the Games started," says Vidmar. "I went to my coach and asked his advice. He told me, `Peter, if you win a gold medal in the Olympics, there will be opportunities.' Then he got real serious and said, `But don't ever let that be the reason you do the Olympics.'
"So I got nothing lined up. I think it was a great approach. I had no pressure that way during the Games at all."
Vidmar's coach - Mako Sakamoto, who is now the men's gymnastics coach at BYU - turned out to be right about the opportunities coming along.
Vidmar will be going to the Olympics next summer in Barcelona - as a TV commentator. "I'll probably be working for NBC pay-per-view," he said. "Before that, I'll be covering the NCAA championships for CBS."
In Barcelona, Vidmar believes the gymnastics fortunes of the U.S. will hinge a lot on what happens with the breakup of the Soviet Union. If the various republics elect to field separate teams, that bodes well for the American women, and not so well for the men.
"Our women are our strongest team, and they'll be the favorite if the Soviets are broken up," he says. "On the men's side, we have a chance for the bronze medal, maybe, behind a combined Soviet team that would easily be the strongest - they won worlds by seven points, which is like winning by seven touchdowns. The problem is, if the Soviets break into separate teams, they could win gold, silver and bronze, leaving everybody else left out."
The thought does not please Vidmar, who would like to see U.S. men's gymnastics climb back to its '84 peak. Then again, he will be in Barcelona, and if America's team needs motivating, he's got this routine . . .