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Two American Olympians have made history in the 29th Olympiad in Beijing.

In his Olympic career Michael Phelps has won 11 gold medals for swimming, the most “decorated” Olympian in the modern era.

Dara Torres is the first Olympian from the United States to compete in five Olympics: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008. She has won ten Olympic medals through the years. Most impressive was her performance at the 2000 games in Sydney where she medaled five times at the age of 33, the oldest swimmer on Team USA. She bested that record as the oldest swimmer on Team USA in Beijing winning a silver medal at the age of 41.

The Olympics come along every four years. We watch world class athletes at the moment of their triumphed or defeat. We fail to see the years and years, hours and hours, of work that precedes the race.

“Eat, sleep and swim. That’s all I can do,” Michael Phelps told the New York Post. He swims between two and five hours a day. He works so hard he consumes 12,000 calories a day.

Breakfast: three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. A five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: A pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread, plus 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

Dinner consists of carbo-loading for the next day: A pound of pasta and an entire pizza.

At 41 Dana Torres swims 5,000 meters a day. This is down from the 12,000 meters a day she used to swim when she was younger and her body was able to recover more efficiently. After her two hour swim – warm-up, kick, sprint, drill. She heads into the weight room for another 90 minutes of training. Then down on the floor to stretch, stretch, stretch. The regime is day in and day out. Her training bill: $100,000/year.

We see the prize. We sometimes fail to appreciate the commitment behind the prize.

In today’s Old Testament lesson we hear the end of the Joseph story from the book of Genesis. Joseph has risen to become the head of the house of Pharaoh in Egypt, the highest office in the land. A casual observer of Joseph might have thought: “How fortunate he is to have risen so far.” Hidden is the commitment to God’s purpose, the faithfulness and the suffering that led him there.

The story begins some 15 years earlier when his brothers throw him down a deep hole. They sell him into slavery. He is falsely accused and thrown into an ancient Egyptian prison. The Pharaoh releases him from prison to administer a draconian agricultural administration policy during seven years of rich harvests to build up a grain reserve for an anticipated famine.

Imagine the n criticism Joseph endured during seven years of what many would have considered the folly of storing surpluses in the midst of such abundance.

What does it take to build a hopeful future? The work always precedes the glory.