David Smith

Pursuit Line Podcast

Dave’s Life

• Dave grew up on the highlands. All he wanted to do was to get out and do sports, as there wasn’t much else to do. He wasn’t interested in academics, only sports.

• Sports gave him the skills he needed to deal with Cancer and Paralysis and Cancer and Paralysis taught him how to live. Karate gave him resilience and taught him how to deal with not being the best. This love for Karate turned into a love of the Olympics.

• He had some regional success in 400 meter runs. After that he became a part of the British bobsled team, and then he worked on the skiing olympic programme.

• Whilst on the skiing team he realized he had skeletal problems which qualified him for paralympic sports. He joined the rowing team but during his time there he was made aware he had a tumor. He had to have surgery.

• Two years after having a life-saving surgery, which left him temporarily paralysed, he won a gold medal in rowing. When he was in recovery he was really thinking about what his goals were, and reading a lot to ensure he was motivated. Surrounded by death and in a really bad mental space, he read Man’s Search for Meaning which really helped him find his purpose again. He had to fight to get his space back on the team after his recovery, but he managed to do it.

• He jumped on the bike after this and really loved it. He decided to make this his main sport.

• In 2015, David was told he had another tumor growing. Having just had a bunch of surgeries, and with Rio just round the corner, he considered not getting another surgery for it so he could compete. His mental health was bad at this time, as he couldn’t live in the moment and was so worried about dying, so he went to Morajoca for Xmas by himself to get some space and clarity.

• David Smith went into a routine surgery in 2016, thinking he would be able to go to Rio and all would be fine, but when he woke up he was paralysed. He had to give up on cycling and couldn’t compete in Rio. He talks about the struggles of coming to terms with it and the mental shift it gave him with time. The pressure of being near people dying all around him for a whole year and then a spinal cord hospital, surrounded by a lot of people in the same situation as him, was incredibly difficult.

• In 2018 he was told the cancer had once again come back. He got suicidal and wanted to ride his bike off a cliff. He decided he would carry on as he didn’t know what was gonna happen. He wanted to fight through and see it to the end.

• The paralysis is what made him depressed. He felt bad about losing use of some of his movement, whilst being around people who were dying, which led him into feeling bad about feeling bad. This was a really bad negative spiral. He managed to pull himself together by calling British Cycling and getting back on the bike. This purpose helped him through.

The Lessons Dave Learnt from Cancer and Paralysis

• You don’t know what’s going to happen. Ever. you can’t take anything for granted.

• It’s important to focus on the things you can do rather than things you can’t. Focusing on what he couldn’t do is what brought him closer to suicide.

• Success is not winning, it’s inner peace and contentment. Pain and suffering taught him this.

• The closer you are to death, the closer you are to life. It motivates you and keeps you in line with what is most important to you. He meditates on his death a lot to help him stay in tune with this.

• It’s important to turn your experiences into lessons, and use these to make the world a better place. Share with others.

• We need to focus on making the human first and then the athlete. If you make sure people are happy and fulfilled, success will come from there. Organisations should also do this for their workers as well. If you do that, people will be better workers and better members of society.

• It’s important to be vulnerable. It helps us understand who we are.

• Dark humour helps us get through hard times. He has seen in the athletic world, but also in the spinal cord hospital.

• It’s important to invest in yourself. Meditation. Exercise. Eat Well. Laugh.

• Take action and your thoughts and emotions will follow. You can change your thoughts very easily if you just get up and do the things you know are good for you.

• Meditation is powerful. It’s beneficial to all of us, not just athletes.

• Be compassionate to yourself and others. We are all just trying to build our own home and do our own thing.

Ed’s surgery

• Ed's experience with drop foot and back surgery. The negative space it put him in and how that pales in comparison to Dave Smith.

• David Smith talking to Ed after the surgery. Ed didn’t really know who Dave was, but Dave was very caring and compassionate anyway. He knew how hard and risky back surgery is. Your identity is being a strong athlete, so being in a hospital gown and feeling very weak can be a difficult thing to process.

References:

• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• VIA Character Strengths Test
• David Smith’s Website
• David Smith’s Instagram
• Pro Noctis Youtube Channel
• Pursuit Line Instagram
• Pursuit Line Website
• Pursuit Line Email: [e-mail]

All music by AlexGrohl from Pixabay

Podcast produced by Liam Wilkinson