“You will only achieve anything great in life 
if you dare to believe that something inside of you 
is bigger than the circumstances you face." 

Ruben Gonzalez is a 4 x Winter Olympian and bidding to become the first Olympian to compete in across 5 decades. Ruben wasn’t a gifted athlete. He didn’t take up the sport of luge until he was 21. Against all odds, four years later he was competing in the Winter Olympics. At the age of 47 he was competing against 20-year-olds in the Vancouver Olympics. At 55, after a seven year break, he’s back on the International Luge Circuit on a quest to become the oldest person to ever compete in the Winter Olympics in Beijing 2022.

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Ruben is the author of four bestsellers and was widely featured in Jack Canfield's book the Success Principles, he has given over 460 keynotes speeches across Fortune 500 and around the world.

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Ruben Gonzalez talks to Ed Andrew on the Human Impact podcast.

 

• discussing the dynamics of the Luge, pulling 6G’s and travelling at 80-90mph, competing in Beijing 2022 (1)

 

• his preparation for competing in the Winter Olympics for 5th time and now taking yoga to stretch 

 

• being in the top 35 men in the world - "how much I am willing to commit determines the probability of success"

 

• preparing mentally for the day itself - "forget about what you cannot control and focus on what you can, cannot beat yourself up for what you cannot control" (10)

 

• discussing the the real Olympics and the pride going on in the races - (11)

 

• the difference between the winners and second place, how 1/1000 second splits the field and why he is slower because he does want to die and the trusting the track

 

• how breath work is so important, breathing exhale at every curve, little things make a big difference, 

 

• talking about the Cresta Run, how it is much easier and less dangerous, talking about taking his kids to train and how Luge is counter intuitive, 70% of injuries across three events comes from the Luge

 

• carrying the Olympic torch and the financial reality of being an Olympian

 

• racing for Argentina, having belief to get started, and choosing his sport, writing to Sports Illustrated (23)   

 

• discussing the origin of the Luge Man

 

• how USA was funding his program and getting his brother into the Olympics who was an architect, another Olympic record as first time two brothers competed in the same sport at Olympics 

 

• getting into speaking, finding a mentor, reading was his savior, and writing his first book 'The Courage to Succeed' 

 

• how he approached Jack Canfield and why he is in three chapters of his book (34) 

 

• why he prefers to self publish, how to write a book and the sweet spot for a book is 120-140 pages 

 

“”you will never achieve anything great in life unless you dare to believe that something inside of you is bigger than the circumstances you face” (46) 

 

• the background to success "90% of success comes down to who you associate with, encourage and support them"

 

"when life knocks you down don’t wallow in your misery, winners get back up" 

 

• "managing risk and to be great is to misunderstood - if I don’t have a few people laughing at my dream then my dream is not big enough - the key is perseverance but no guarantees,  (57)

 

"it will take a bunch of private victories before you get a public one"

 

• having ADD, talking about what it feels like to walk into the Olympic Village at 39 as a competitor

 

• discussing his preparation before they race - visualising the race and contingency plans "it is all about the breath work" (62) 

 

• making a movie about his life, the story behind it, writing the screenplay, sent it to the top actors

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To contact Ruben click on the links below:

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https://ruben-gonzalez.com

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