Peter Vidmar may have scored a perfect 10 at the 1984 Olympic Games and taken home one silver and two gold medals, but he didn't get to the winner's stand through any act of superhuman effort, he said at the Salt Lake City Single Adult Conference this weekend.Vidmar was the keynote speaker Saturday at the three-day event for single members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ages 31 and older. He told audience members at the Salt Lake Institute of Religion that consistent, practiced changes have made the biggest difference in his life — doubling his effort or adding hours to an already long training day.The 47-year-old gymnast is the second counselor in his California stake and a motivational speaker who gives presentations for corporations and other groups. He said that when he was a competing athlete, he made goals of always working slightly harder in hopes of reaching success, and encouraged audience members to do the same in their professional, personal and spiritual lives."The gymnast trains six hours everyday," he said. "I can't train 12 hours... my body would fall apart. ... But I can train six hours and 15 minutes a day."He said some people worry that achieving success requires working twice as hard as they're used to, so they aren't likely to even begin. But real change can be achieved with as little as 15 minutes of extra effort.He said the same principles he learned as a gymnast apply to members of the church who want to improve.If they can find 15 more minutes for scripture study, 15 more minutes for reflection and prayer, they'll be so much better off and closer to achieving their goals. They don't always need to overhaul their lives and make drastic changes.Success isn't measured in squashing the competition by leaps and bounds, he said. More often than not, victories are decided by tenths of a point or hundredths of a second.Vidmar shared his memories of competing at the 1984 Los Angeles games, where the United States men's gymnastics team achieved victory. The U.S. found themselves in an unexpected position when toward the end of competition, they were neck and neck for the gold medal with the reigning champions, the Republic of China. Vidmar was the final gymnast to compete in the last event, the horizontal bar. Unbeknownst to him, his teammate who finished a routine just before him had scored a perfect 10, guaranteeing the U.S. a gold medal. As Vidmar told it, he "could fall off the high bar 58 times," and they still would have won gold as the lowest score would be dropped.He said he felt intense pressure, with the stadium filled to the brim, and, as far as he was concerned, the team's fate on his shoulders. But he didn't have to do anything new, he didn't have to perfect anything on the spot that he hadn't already perfected. As his coach told him before Vidmar walked out on the mat, "You've done this 1,000 times ... Let's just do this one more time."Even though the situation was unprecedented, he had prepared day-in and day-out for it."I didn't wait until it was too late to figure out how to handle a situation like this. I did this everyday, every work out."Vidmar received a 9.95 for his routine, and went on to win a silver medal in the men's all-around competition, and tie for gold in the individuals men's pommel horse competition.Vidmar said the principles he shared were important not because they applied to gymnastics or came from an Olympian, but because they were universal."I know what it feels like to be an Olympic gold medalist. It's really neat. It's really fun, but you know, it really isn't that important. I didn't come to Earth to become an Olympic gymnast.... But maybe I'm here instead to unify, to keep the commandments...to endure to the end."Duane Millard, who co-chairs the Holladay Region Single Adult Committee, which sponsored the conference, said he was very excited to have Vidmar as a guest, and hopeful that the men and women present got something out of the speech. Millard said he had hoped to have more than 1,000 people show up to the keynote address, but estimated there were about 700. He said he's received about twice as many calls from people who couldn't "comfortably afford" the registration fee than he has in years past."That tells me the recession is real," he said.For future activities, the committee will cut costs wherever they can to ensure as many people as possible will be able to attend, he said. Millard's primary goal is to get as many people as possible out so they can meet, interact, befriend and socialize, he said.Gloria Mora of Sandy attended the conference and looked forward to attending the various workshops. A divorced mother of three, Mora said she sees the value in attending conferences like the one put on this weekend, even though she sometimes prefers the classes to the socializing."I love to have friends, but I'm a little shy, so I enjoy the workshops," she said.The conference began Friday evening with a formal dinner and dance and will conclude Sunday evening with a fireside given by Elder James J. Hamula of the First Quorum of the Seventy at 7 p.m. in the West Chapel of the institute. The fireside is free and no registration is required to attend.
E-mail: mfarmer@desnews.com