“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds,” wrote Albert Einstein in 1940. The expression is a terrible cliché at this point, but it’s always intrigued me. What does “violent opposition” look like? Are only mediocre minds susceptible? And how do these great spirits respond?
In this week’s post — second in a short series about the problem-solving strategies of Olympic athletes — I’ll share perspectives from two greats in the world of swimming: the backstroker David Berkoff, who popularized an extended underwater kick, and Mike Barrowman, who pioneered an undulating “wave-style” breaststroke. The new techniques turned humans into semiaquatic mammals (think sea otters) with significant drops in time.