Summer Olympics 2012: 7 Athletes Facing the Most Pressure to Win Gold Medal

There is a ton of pressure put on some athletes to succeed during the Olympics.
Some athletes have dominated their individual events leading up to the Olympics and are the heavy favorites to win gold.

Others are on teams that are supposed to come out on top and have the pressure of leading their squads to victory.

Either way, failing to live up to the hype is not only embarrassing for the athlete, but also disappointing for their entire country’s fanbase.

Here are seven athletes who are facing the most pressure to succeed during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Jessica Ennis 

Country: Great Britain 

Event: Heptathlon

No British athlete has bigger expectations on him or her than Jessica Ennis does.

From 2009 until now, the 26-year-old Ennis has finished either first or second in every major competition she has entered. She understands that every British fan thinks she will win and will consider her a failure if she doesn’t.

Ennis spoke with the press recently about these expectations and the pressure on her to take home the gold in her first Olympic games.

“Because of the expectation and pressure, I think anything but gold, everyone would view that as a failure. But it’s just about focusing on what I know I can do. I obviously get asked a lot about the pressure and how I'm feeling and of course I feel it. There is a lot of expectation going into a home Games for anyone, but I'm just really focused on my training and how things have been going and realistically what I can achieve.”

No one wants to disappoint their fans and their country. Jessica Ennis will have to focus extra hard if she wants to overcome all the distractions and take home the gold in front of her home crowd.

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh 

Country: United States

Event: Beach Volleyball

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in beach volleyball in 2004 and 2008.
Since though, the two have gone in very separate directions. Misty May-Treanor tore her Achilles and was forced to miss significant time rehabbing her injury. Kerri Walsh gave birth to two children since 2008 and was forced to get a new partner in May-Treanor’s absence.
The two recently teamed up again, but will not be entering the Olympics with the No. 1 ranking like they are accustomed to having. The pair is currently ranked third in the world, but is determined to become the greatest duo ever with a third straight Olympic gold medal.
Walsh recently spoke with Jim Caple of ESPN.com about teaming up with Misty May-Treanor once again and defending their title.

"Misty said we have nothing left to prove because we have done so many great things, but I want to prove to the world that we're the best in 2012. I feel like if we win a third gold medal, when we win a third gold medal in London, it will put us in that realm. We'll be the best there ever was in beach volleyball, and I just want that. I want us to do it because we're capable.”

 Novak Djokovic

Country: Serbia 

Event: Tennis

From July 4, 2011 until July 8, 2012, Novak Djokovic was the No. 1-rated men’s singles tennis player in the world.
Less than a month ago though, Roger Federer took that title back for the third time in his career.
With Rafael Nadal, the defending gold medalist from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, not able to compete this year because of an injury, Djokovic and Federer are the clear favorites to become Olympic champion. The pressure is on Djokovic to prove he is deserving of the No. 1 spot and defeat Federer, who owns their head-to-head record 15-12.
Federer is the crafty veteran who will never go away, but this is supposed to be Djokovic’s time to shine now. He is a younger and faster player and must be victorious at the Olympics in order to reclaim his spot on top of the tennis world.

Hope Solo

Country: United States

Event: Soccer

The goalie on any soccer team has more pressure on them than any of the other players.
Besides being the goalie, the United States women’s soccer team is also the heavy favorite to take home the gold medal. The four times that women’s soccer has been an Olympic sport, the Americans have won the gold three times and silver once.
A strong performance by Hope Solo is essential to the United States continuing its dominance. If the Americans don’t do as well as they have in the past, you can be sure Solo is the one who will be blamed for the loss.
She understands these expectations and knows she can handle the pressure,telling Andrew Romano of The Daily Beast, “It takes a lot to rattle me these days.”

 

 

 

 

Usain Bolt

Country: Jamaica 

Event: 100- and 200-Meter Dash

Usain Bolt is regarded as the fastest man on the planet.
Bolt is the reigning gold medalist in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints. Not only did he win both races back in 2008 in Beijing, but he also set the world record in both events in the process.
Bolt is still the world record holder in both events, but has recently been getting beat by fellow Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake. Blake, not Bolt, actually enters the 2012 Olympics as the favorite to take home the gold in these two events.

If Usain Bolt wants to maintain his status as the fastest man and not get overshadowed by Blake during these Olympics, he must overcome the pressure and defeat Blake once again.

Michael Phelps

Country: United States

Event: Swimming

All eyes will be on Michael Phelps when he competes in his third and final Olympic games. Phelps has become one of the most popular Olympians in history after his epic run in 2008 where he earned eight gold medals.
Phelps has earned 16 medals in total during the two Olympics he’s competed in so far, 14 gold medals and two bronze medals. He is the only athlete in Olympic history to earn double-digit gold medals in his career.

He is currently second on the list for all-time Olympic medals, two shy of Larisa Latynina, who was a gymnast from the Soviet Union in the 50s and 60s.

The pressure will be on Phelps to earn those final three medals to become the most winning Olympian of all time.

LeBron James

Country: United States

Event: Basketball

The biggest surprise in the entire Olympics would have to be if the USA men's squad doesn’t defend its gold medal in basketball.

The Americans are hands-down the best team competing in the Olympics. They proved this when they went 5-0 in their training games, including wins over No. 2-ranked Spain and No. 3-ranked Argentina.

As the leader and best player on this team, LeBron James has the most pressure on him to make sure they go undefeated and take home the gold. If he is playing at the same high level he played at all season long and throughout the playoffs, it will be nearly impossible for team USA to lose a single game.
Besides just winning the gold for the team, James also has a lot personally invested in winning this gold medal. If he achieves gold, James will join Michael Jordan as the only two players in NBA history to win the MVP Award, NBA Championship and Olympic gold all in the same year.

LeBron James will be the laughingstock of the NBA if he can’t lead his team of superstars to a gold medal.

YILMAZ ÖZDIL

Gençliğe hitabe ayet midir?
Hâşâ...
Ama, Allah’ın ilk emri ne?
Oku!
*
Okumak lazım. *
Birinci vazifen “bağımsızlığı korumak” diyor. Çünkü,
varlığın “bağımsızlığına bağlı” diyor. Manevi
“hazine”ndir, “güven kaynağı”ndır diyor. İlerki yıllarda,
seni bu hazineden yoksun bırakmak isteyecek
“kötü”ler olacak... Bu kötüler, dışarda da olacak, “içerde” de olacak diyor. Geleceğine kıymak isteyen
bu tipler “eşi benzeri görülmemiş galibiyetlerin”
temsilcisi olabilir... Sakın ola şartlar elverişsiz
filan diye düşünme, elini taşın altına
koymaktan çekinme, savun diyor.
* Cebren ve hile’yle, yani, “zorla” ve “kandırarak”
vatanın bütün kalelerini zaptedebilirler, bütün
tersanelerine girebilirler diyor. “Ordu”su dağıtılabilir
diyor. Yurdun her köşesi “işgal” edilebilir diyor.
Bunlardan daha acı ve daha korkunç... Memleketi
idare edenler, aymaz ve sapkın olabilir, hatta “ihanet” edebilirler. Genç arkadaşım... Bunlar, kişisel
çıkarlarını, memleketin orasına burasına yerleşen dış
güçlerin siyasi amaçlarıyla birleştirebilir diyor.
*
(Öngörüye bak.)
* Ulus, yoksulluktan bitkin düşebilir, tepkisiz kalabilir,
“sen uyanık ol” diyor. “Korkma” demeye getiriyor...
“Korkma” diye başlayan dünyadaki tek milli marşı
hatırlatırcasına.
*
E okuyunca... *
Kaldırılsın kardeşim!
Durduğu kabahat.

YILMAZ ÖZDIL

Coffee drinking in the Middle East dates back to at least the twelfth century. From there the custom of coffee drinking spread to the whole Islamic world. With its introduction to Turkey, coffee has been an important social beverage for nearly the past four-hundred. The first coffeehouses in Turkey appeared in Istanbul in the sixteenth century, at a time when Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The Empire had already expanded into parts of Europe and was influencing both the European and Turkish cultures. Istanbul's key geographical location served as a link between the east and west through which customs were filtered. 

Coffee drinking was one eastern tradition introduced into Europe through Istanbul. The coffeehouses of Istanbul, being the first physical settings where coffee was consumed and where socializing and communicating were the prime activities, can be considered the prototype of later versions in Turkey and Europe. They became the first non-religious social settings that brought a new appreciation for recreation, communication, and community integration, forever changing the lifestyle in Turkish society. Although coffeehouses are an essential part of daily life as neighborhood community centers, for a period of time they have lost their importance and are nearly extinct in urban areas between 1980s and early 1990s. During this period only in smaller towns and villages can the traditional Turkish coffeehouse be found. 

Similar to the urban areas of Europe and the United States, life in the large cities like Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara is hectic and time spent outside of work and home is limited. Within the city, older citizens tend to be more willing to frequent the traditional coffeehouse than the young, who often spend their leisure time on more contemporary activities such as frequenting new bars, modern coffeehouses and cafes. In rural areas, where the society is primarily agrarian, people of all ages often visit the traditional coffeehouse as the only place for pastime. Understanding Global Cultures suggested that the primary reasons for the demise of the traditional Turkish coffeehouse and replace them with modern cafes in urban areas were the following:

• The new generation places less emphasis on traditional values and greater emphasis on earning a living.
• Alternative activities have emerged as cities become more cosmopolitan and a more modernized lifestyle is preferred. The middle and upper classes  enjoying the top notch art exhibits, cinemas, theaters, concerts, bars and contemporary cafes, modern and trendy coffee houses where they find verity of menu items from all around the world.
• As social environments in cities are unisex; coffeehouses are highly attractive and smoke-free for a meeting joint.

Even though the problems identified in the past by researchers such as allowing smoking at indoor areas, have affected the coffeehouse tradition, with the recent changes by laws to ban any type of smoking in public they have increased peoples' pleasure of drinking coffee at various social settings. Coffee is still a widely consumed beverage and has especially grown in popularity with the introduction of specialty coffees, such as espresso, cappuccino, and flavored coffees. With the acceptance of a modernized lifestyle the existence of a unique and rich traditional coffeehouse culture in Turkey is now struggling to compete with the emerging new American, French, Italian, or Austrian cafes. The sense of belonging and the need to identify with some activity of a nation's culture is a fundamental component of life. The Turkish coffeehouse is an important cultural tradition that Turks identify with closely and that form the basis for describing and understanding their values and behavior. It is the inability to belong, the failure to identify the character of a place and to recognize it as specifically and essentially one's own, that gives rise to personal worries, and social unrest. The promotion of a concept for a contemporary Turkish coffeehouse which retains its traditional character is an important step towards reviving a centuries old coffee tradition that is slowly ceasing to exist in Turkish cities. An effective way to promote and distribute this concept could be through the marketing method of franchising, which has proven to be a successful format for gaining name, image, and product recognition quickly. The success of franchising primarily depends on the uniformity of an image which requires the design of all graphic components from logo to store layout, followed by a well planned operating system and a continuous financial relationship with business partners.

Although the method of franchising has been successfully implemented in the United States for nearly a century, it is a relatively popular concept for the Turkish market for the last 20 years. The majority of foreign franchises found in Turkey belong to businesses involved in the organic food, natural resources, tourism, fast-food and textile/garment industry. Some of the leading brands such as Starbucks Coffee, Robert's Coffee, Gloria Jean's Coffee, Dallmayr Kaffee, Cafe Crown, Tchibo, Barnie's Coffee, Kahve Keyfi, Dunkin' Donuts, C & C (Coffee and Chocolate), Schiller Chiemsee, Caffé Nero, Pascucci, Testa Rossa, Lavazza are in almost every city where they opened a number of franchised outlets during the last 15 years. Presently, the market has still the potential for accepting franchises from nearly every industry, including coffee. Today the loss of cultural identity portrayed by the demise of historic Turkish coffeehouses  prevented by the contemporary coffeehouse franchises such as Kahve Dünyası, Kuru Kahveci Mehmet Efendi,  Gönül Kahvesi based on Turkish traditions.

Healthcare Reform in Basic Terms

The process of passing and implementing a law is a long and winding road, but President Obama’s Healthcare Reforms cleared a significant hurdle on last Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld most of the law as constitutional against challenges from many of the states as well as business organizations. We hear lots of questions from employees, patients, friends and relatives, and even your providers and colleagues, and they all basically boil down to this: How does the law affect me?

As Managers and Administrators, one of the most basic ways you influence outcomes for your employees, your patients, and ultimately, your organization is to be informed, and to inform others. Can you give a basic overview of the law that was passed to a worried patient? Have your staff gotten any information about handling patient questions? Do your providers have a basic idea of how the practice will respond to the changes? Many states and organizations have been delaying plans for the changes in the PPACA because of the court challenges to the law (many were plaintiffs in the suit) or for this November’s elections, which could put a President in the White House who has promised to repeal the law. On top of that, even if President Obama wins another term, a Republican-controlled Congress could choose not to fund certain programs so that the law could not be put into place. For the moment however, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land for the immediate future, and something all managers need to have a basic grasp on.

What is changing for individuals?

The goal of the legislation is to decrease the number of uninsured people in the country by tweaking existing federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and issuing new regulations on the health insurance industry as well as on private businesses and individual citizens.

By the year 2014 everyone will have a responsibility to carry some kind of health insurance. If you don’t get healthcare coverage through your work or your family, or through an existing program like Medicare, Medicaid, oTricare, you will have to purchase a minimum level of private insurance or face a penalty. Subsidies to help pay for the required insurance will be available to individuals and families who make up to 400% of the poverty level on a sliding scale.

One example from Wikipedia, of how that would work in real life: A family of four whose income is at 150% of the Federal Poverty Level (~$34,000 a year) would be subsidized so that their monthly premiums would be about 2% of income, or $50.

To further help individuals comply with the mandate to have insurance coverage, by 2014 each state will set up a Health Insurance “Exchange” a marketplace where individuals can compare benefits and premiums for health insurance, and find out if they qualify for federal subsidies.

Are My Taxes Going Up?

In addition to the individual mandate, in 2013 people with income $200,000 a year or more ($250,000 a year for couples) will have their Medicare Tax increased from 1.45% to 2.35% on the income above the limit. The Medicare Tax on Net Investment Income over the $200,000 limit will be raised from 2.9% to 3.8%. These increased Medicare taxes on high income individuals account for roughly half of the new income to pay for the bill. Other new taxes on individuals include a 40% excise tax on “Cadillac Plans” or insurance plans that cost more than $10,200 a year for an individual ($27,500 for a family) starting in 2018, and a 10% sales tax on tanning services that began in 2010. New restrictions will also be placed on Healthcare Savings Accounts and Medical Expenses taken as tax deductions.

How will Insurance Change?

Although people will be required to carry some form of policy, new regulations on insurance companies should increase the overall benefit to the private citizen for purchasing coverage. For example, insurance companies can no longer deny (or overcharge for) coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, cannot drop someone’s coverage who becomes ill, and cannot impose either lifetime or annual caps on how much a policy will pay out in benefits. Insurance now also has to pay for basic preventative care like wellness visits without co-pays or deductibles, and children can stay on their parents’ insurance until their 26th birthday- even if the child is not a financial dependent, or is married. Insurance companies also have to adhere to a “Medical Loss Ratio”, which means that they have to spend a certain amount of the money they collect from your premiums on either medical services or quality improvement. Every year the insurance companies must report how much of the premiums they collect are spent on these medical losses, and if they spend less than the ratio (80% for individual and small group plans, 85% for large group plans), the difference is refunded to the policyholder.

What about Medicare and Medicaid?

Federal Health Plans Medicare and Medicaid will also be changed. Medicare enrollees who hit the “donut hole” in the prescription drug benefit receive a 50% discount on covered name-brand drugs, and the benefit will continue to increase until the so called "Doughnut Hole” is completely closed in 2020. Also, federal money will be made available to the states to expand Medicare coverage to anyone who makes up to 133% of the Federal Poverty Line. At the time of this writing, the governors of two states, Florida and Louisiana, have already indicated that they will not take the additional Medicaid funding from the federal government.

Controlling Proactive Communications in Healthcare

Patients and caregivers are more involved in making healthcare decisions today than ever before. This is due to rising healthcare costs, increased access to information via the Web, distrust of information from pharmaceutical companies and increased media focus on healthcare issues. In addition, a growing number of patients wish to interact with their primary care physicians through multiple lines of communication including phone, email, SMS, web portals and social media.

Widespread use of these customer service channels is beginning to proliferate across the healthcare industry. Therefore, healthcare organizations must invest in those technologies that enhance these channels to optimize interactions. By automating frequent and relatively simplistic information exchange in healthcare, proactive communications can reduce the expense and effort of keeping patients; providers and payers in close contact and deliver significant benefits to all stakeholders in healthcare. Proactive communications is the combination of outbound technologies and processes that enable enterprises to send targeted and interactive messages to customers, notifying them of changes in scheduling, the availability of relevant products and services, and whether certain bill payments are due or account balances are low. They enable consumers to preemptively make adjustments to their schedules or accounts before genuine issues arise. The most common types of proactive communication channels used in customer interaction are voice, messaging, email, and web chat. The following are the definitions of the various channels most relevant to proactive communications solutions.

 

TRENDS IN HEALTHCARE

Quality, cost and access are the critical issues in healthcare today. Healthcare providers and payers are facing challenges to deliver quality care in the face of rising pressures from an aging patient population, reductions in reimbursement for prescription medications, the potential emergence of compulsory member enrollment, increased administrative overhead and rising healthcare costs. The following provides a deeper level dive into the trends shaping the healthcare market:

·      Improving the quality of care – Increased transparency of clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction are vital to improving the quality of care patients receives. This is driving the need for greater reliance on technology to address these issues as well as improve care directly. Better automation of standards in care through the use of technology such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and clinical decision support tools will improve quality of care, by ensuring that patient information is instantly accessible, and that a standardized treatment approach is met. Increased communication between providers and patients / members also improves health outcomes, as appropriate outpatient follow-up care can reduce the chance of readmission to the hospital.

·      Mitigating the rising costs of healthcare – A growing, aging population is increasing the length and therefore cost of treatment, which combined with the expectation of a higher quality of life, is further straining the healthcare system. This is compounded by increasingly educated customers demanding treatment with therapies that can, at times, be novel and expensive. Prevention and health education could lower future healthcare costs, but these strategies are overshadowed by acute and current healthcare requirements. In addition to these factors, nearly one third of every dollar spent on healthcare is currently spent on administrative, rather than clinical functions, representing a key area where current costs can be evaluated and reduced. Healthcare stakeholders are becoming more reliant on technology to increase efficiencies in the healthcare system and to help manage costs.

·      Increasing access to care – Access to adequate healthcare presents an even greater concern to uninsured patients in countries where health insurance is not universal. Furthermore, many individuals are underinsured and forgo preventative care due to the costs involved. In the long run, this is more expensive for healthcare systems than providing effective preventative care; patients are waiting until their illnesses become more advanced before seeking care, requiring more intensive and expensive treatment. This drain on resources means that patients are facing longer waiting times when scheduling appointments in part due to the increased demand for services. As a corollary, co-morbidity rates and the prevalence of chronic diseases are expected to increase, further exacerbating the strain on healthcare resources.

USE CASES FOR PROACTIVE COMMUNICATIONS IN HEALTHCARE

Currently, when providers need to communicate with their patients they rely on two primary channels: personal phone calls and direct mail. In today’s market these outbound methods simply are neither economical nor efficient. Taking advantage of proactive communications to streamline and improve clinical and healthcare business processes lead to better utilization of limited healthcare assets and cost reduction. This frees up resources and increases access to care for a greater number of those patients. Proactive communications in healthcare is typically used today for administrative and clinical support, as highlighted below:

·      Administrative support – Proactive communications is typically used for functions such as collections, member enrollment, patient registration, welcome calls, and information retrieval and customer surveys.

·      Clinical support – Proactive communications in this area is used for vaccination scheduling, appointment scheduling and reminders, prescription refill and medication support, identity verification and outbreak alerts.

·      Preventative care and wellness management – Proactive communications has not been widely used in this area to date, however, a ramp up is expected over the next few years as providers and payers try to pre-empt chronic illnesses and help improve the health of members and patients over the long-term.

THE BENEFITS OF PROACTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

Improving communication between patients, providers and payers will improve the quality of care, help reduce costs and increase access to care for patients. Proactive communications allows healthcare professionals to use their time more effectively elsewhere. In addition, it makes it possible for patients to be reached at times that are most convenient for them. Patients may indicate times they are most likely to be reached; these times may not be convenient for the doctor’s office to place a call. If a patient prefers lunchtimes, evenings, or weekends, this can be supplied by the phone (via outbound IVR), SMS or email with relative ease. The pervasiveness of mobile devices has created the foundation for successful proactive communications programs administered by healthcare organizations. The idea being the member or patient can be reached via outbound IVR or SMS. Moreover, the increasing number of smartphones has given members and patients more access to different channels including email, web chat, video and social media. In comparison to personal phone calls and direct mail (the two primary channels of outbound communications in healthcare today) proactive communications provides numerous benefits including: immediacy, prompt feedback, identification and verification and low cost of repetition.

 WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Optimize the backend – Effective proactive communications require access to customer data. Healthcare organizations should ensure the smooth flow of data between the back-office and application layers. It’s important that members and patients only receive outbound notifications that are actually relevant, otherwise this can alienate them as customers. In order to facilitate the most relevant communications, healthcare organizations should ensure the alignment of backend databases.

Consider introducing preventative care and wellness management – Collections are certainly the most popular use for proactive communications in utilities. However, further cost savings abound for utilities companies that creatively deploy proactive communications. Outage warnings, for instance, reduce incoming call volumes and raise customer satisfaction levels.

Segment customers and create segmented strategies – Payers and providers that can analyze the nature of a customer can then devise the most effective means to reach them. They must therefore find out member and patient channel preferences during different times of the day. For members or patients that simply need a reminder an automated message via outbound IVR, email or SMS will be sufficient. For members or patients that need to conduct a transaction, outbound IVR, a chat session or email will likely suffice. For those members and patients facing more complex issues, the organization can use outbound dialing to ensure an expert or live agent will be on the call to provide assistance.