Hard work leads to hardware for Olympians

SALT LAKE CITY — We’ve all heard the saying that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert and for Olympians, that discipline is on display every time they perform and compete.

For one Salt Lake City company that has been creating symbols of that success through Olympic hardware to honor all of that hard work, it’s become a way of life.

When you think of gold, silver and bronze, no doubt, you picture images of greatness; Olympic athletes who have reached that three-tiered podium have the proof of their competitive excellence on display for all to see.

“Saying thank you and honoring with a medal or an award or a symbol of your achievement is as old as humanity,” said Mindi Cox, chief marketing and people officer at O.C. Tanner.

The shining, polished medals seem to be the perfect materials to honor an athlete who’s become the best of the best.

But what about wax? This soft material is molded, pushed and pulled and crafted into a symbol that may better represent the journey of every Olympian – the process toward perfection.

“Very few athletes go home with a medal but every athlete has achieved something great by simply making the Olympic team,” Cox said. “So to have a ring to symbolize that achievement and to forever remember all the hard work, sacrifice and success they experience becoming a Team USA athlete… It’s just our honor to recognize them with that.”

Cox told KSL TV that team effort — the coaches, parents, friends and loved ones who helped every step of the way from the sidelines — can take pride, and now perhaps take a pin, as athletes get one of these to show their appreciation to the ones who inspired their path.

“We love celebrating greatness. We love watching people thrive at work. And for these athletes, this is work,” Cox said.

It’s hard work, too. The hard knocks, the smoothing and polishing, the exactness that leads to the laser focus.

It’s a fitting symbol of the road to the Olympic Games that every Team USA member dating back to the Syndey Games in 2000 has gotten, free of charge, courtesy of this local employee recognition company. So let’s recognize just how many that means.

“Paris will be our 13th Games and I haven’t done the math on how many athletes and Games it will be by the time we get to 2034,” Cox said.

I did the math, sort of. If my calculations are correct, they’re sitting at around 5,000 rings.

The production floor here at O.C. Tanner could be seen as the heart of this organization but don’t put them up on a pedestal. That’s their job to honor those regular employees to Olympians past, present, and yes, hopefully, future.

“O.C. Tanner has already sort of raised their hand and said, remember we’re still here. We’re still really good at this,” said Sandra Christensen, vice president of awards at O.C. Tanner.

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes the top brass at the IOC or here in Salt Lake City have forgotten this craftsmanship over so many Olympic Games.

And Christensen knows about that long road to success.

“It’s part of our culture here in Utah,” she said.

She started at O.C. Tanner almost exactly 35 years ago, just out of high school, making rings. And now she’s the VP of awards — a process toward a podium, indeed.

“When the athletes come through team processing and they find out they’re getting a ring and we tell them we’re handmaking these in Salt Lake City, Utah… it just kind of blows their mind,” Christensen said. “They’re so excited to have this permanent reminder, this permanent keepsake of the Games.”

A keepsake that started soft but took shape thanks to many talented hands on the way to become the shining, symbol of success.