Heroes.

Throughout my time participating in medieval fighting, both re-enactment and now more pertinently full contact HMB, I've felt overwhelmed at times by the amount of skill required, the sometimes constant defeats and the more demoralising days where training is an abject failure and no progress seems to be made whatsoever. This comes in many forms- running around the track for cardio and feeling unwell and/or unable to complete the circuit without stopping; failing to block punches at training; running out of time, feeling too tired during a fight, etc. Or simply seeing the skill of other fighters- fighters who in time, I will have to fight against and aim to beat.

I thought recently about the people I've either long admired or recently have come to hear about and straight away felt an urge to emulate their characters. I look to these people, some who have passed away and others who are alive and actively participating in their chosen sport or field; some who are athletes, pushing the boundaries of what they ever thought their capabilities would be and others wartime heroes, engaged in a life and death battle for survival against multiple unrelenting and unforgiving enemies, at times against people with heavy personal grudges against them.

Fighting broken bones and the clock; dodging gunfire, chasing Olympic gold and carrying the hopes of a nation with a broken body, fighting a shattered mind through murky depths, fighting for life day in and day out; and burning at the stake after following her faith and fighting for a country and her people, these people stand to inspire me to keep fighting, keep the faith and never give up:

Ronda Rousey

In the 2007 Judo World Championships semi final for women against Edith Bosch of The Netherlands, Rousey dislocated her left elbow at the hands of Bosch. In excruciating pain, Rousey refused to forfeit, popping her own elbow back into place while on the mat and kept fighting, defeating Bosch with 30 seconds left on the clock. Rousey went on to become the first American to win an Olympic medal in Judo, taking out bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and after retiring from Judo and turning to Mixed Martial Arts, is now the current and undefeated UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion.

Simo Häyhä

Sniper for the Finnish Army. During the Winter War between Finland from 1939 to 1940, in temperatures between -40 and -20 degrees Celsius, Häyhä single-handedly stared down the might of the Soviet Army to defend Finland. He killed over 500 Soviet snipers, including squads of snipers sent specifically to hunt him down. The Soviets threw everything at him- including artillery strikes, all of which he survived. In March 1940, half his lower face was blown off when he was hit by an explosive. He regained consciousness a week later, was promoted to Second Lieutenant and lived a long and happy life,  passing away in 2002, aged 96. He remains, 75 years later, the world's deadliest sniper.

Kerri Strug

While competing in the finals of the artistic gymnastics group all-round competition as part of the US women's artistic gymnastics team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games,  Strug was the last of her team to attempt the vault. Due to an under-rotation, she landed awkwardly and looked to badly roll her ankle. At this stage, the US team was coming first- in front of Russia by a mere 0.897 points- and about to make history by winning the first gold medal in the history of the event for the US and break the decades-long Russian stranglehold on the event. Strug chose not to forfeit. Barely able to walk, she made her second and final attempt at the vault. She stuck the landing with one foot, thus completing the vault and sealing USA's gold medal, then collapsed onto her knees, visibly in excruciating pain. Strug was lifted from the mat by her coach, Bela Karolyi, and with assistance, stood on the medal dais, before being taken to hospital. She had suffered from more than a simple sprained ankle- she had completed the final vault while suffering a third degree lateral sprain and severe tendon damage.

Chloe McCardel

Chloe McCardel is a 30 year old Australian ultra marathon swimmer. Among McCardel's feats are a world record 124.4km swim off the Bahamas coast, an uninterrupted triple crossing of the English Channel, and an attempted crossing of the Straits of Florida from Cuba to Florida, which had to be forfeited after 11 hours due to hypothermia and jellyfish stings. During her last attempt at a triple crossing of the English Channel, one of McCardel's arms stopped working. She was pulled from the water by her support crew and due to the severe mental effects of hypothermia, was incoherent and  unaware her arm was no longer functioning. She continues to train for future marathon swims.

Louis Zamperini

A former Olympian in track and field, while serving as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps in 1943, at the height of World War 2, the B-24 hornet Zamperini and his crewmates were flying crashed into the ocean, 1,370 kilometres south of the Hawaiian island Oahu, which killed 8 out of the 11 men on board. Zamperini and the two other survivors of the crash spent an incredible 47 days adrift, enduring attempted shark attacks, a storm which nearly caused their life raft to capsize and multiple strike attempts by a Japanese bomber on their raft. One attack punctured it but the raft remained afloat. They survived on captured rain water, raw fish and two albatross which they caught and killed themselves. Unfortunately, one of the survivors, Francis MacNamara, did not survive.

On their 47th day at sea, their raft washed up on the Marshall Islands and Zamperini and the other survivor, Russell Phillips, were captured immediately by the Japanese Army and held in various prisoner of war camps until WW2 ended in 1945. Most of Zamperini's time was spent in the infamous Naoetsu POW camp, where he was singled out for relentless physical torture by the sadistic Imperial Japanese Army Sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Watanabe was notorious for taking perverse pleasure in torturing prisoners. Accounts are as such:

"The worst part I think about being in the cell was [Japanese] submarines," Louie revealed in a CBN interview. "A submarine came in and of course, they never see prisoners. So, they can't wait, so they line up in front of your cell, 75, 80 men lined up like going to a movie premiere. And every one of them is either swearing at ya, throwing rocks at ya, or jabbing ya with sticks, spitting on ya. You know, and here you are 65 pounds, you got constant diarrhea, you're starved, they throw a rice ball, they don't give it to ya. It falls on the floor. You have to spend hours picking up every grain of rice mixed in with the dirt. It just seemed like that line would never end."

On three occasions, Louie was injected and used as a guinea pig for medical experiments. He had to describe to his captors what the injection was doing to his body. Louie said that he experienced dizziness and prickly spots all over his body. They only stopped when he told them that he was on the verge of passing out. -CBN

"Watanabe beat POWs every day, fracturing their windpipes, rupturing their eardrums, shattering their teeth, tearing one man's ear half off, leaving men unconscious. ... He ordered one man to report to him to be punched in the face every night for three weeks. He practiced judo on an appendectomy patient." As he unleashed his madness, Watanabe would howl, drool and sometimes cry. Just before he went into a violent rage, his right eyelid would sag.

 In real life, the Japanese clubbed Fitzgerald, stuck penknives under his fingernails, and tore his fingernails off. They also performed the "water cure" method of torture, whereby a prisoner is tipped backwards and water is poured up his nose as his mouth is held shut, causing him to eventually pass out. Like in the movie, Fitzgerald never gave up any information. -Unbroken book

Mutsuhiro Watanabe (aka "The Bird"), who gave Louie daily beatings. Louie was eventually knocked down by The Bird, but only because, as depicted in the movie, The Bird cracked Louie so hard in the left temple with a belt buckle that Louie's legs collapsed underneath him. The beatings left Louie deaf in his left ear for several weeks. -Unbroken book

Zamperini, when released from the camp, weighed around 30kg.

After the war, he married his fiancé, and after suffering nightmares and turning to alcohol in response to the torture he endured, turned to Christianity. He embraced the theme of forgiveness and travelled back to Japan in 1950 to meet with some of his guards and tell them he forgave them. The guards who recognised him stepped forward and he embraced them.

In 1998, Zamperini ran with the Olympic Torch in the Japanese city of Nagano, for the Winter Olympics. His run took him near where he had been held prisoner under Watanabe. He attempted to meet with Watanabe but was turned down.

Zamperini passed away in July 2014, at age of 97.

Joan of Arc

Born in 1412 in Domremy, France, Joan claimed at the age of 12 to have received visions of the angels St Catherine of Alexandria, St Margaret of Antioch and the Archangel Michael - who, in 1422, was declared the patron saint of the French Royal Army. Following these visions, from which she gained inspiration to take a vow of chastity and aid in the expulsion of the British and install Charles of Valois as the rightful king, at the age of 17 in 1429, she was presented to the man who would become Charles the Seventh, offering her aid.

After passing tests by theologians, she was provided with a suit of armour and a banner depicting the fleurs-de-lis and Jesus Christ flanked by two angels. She is claimed to have set about reforming the soldiers in the army battalion in Blois, by "expelling the prostitutes from the camp (sometimes at sword point, according to several eyewitnesses) and requiring the soldiers to go to church and confession, give up swearing, and refrain from looting or harassing the civilian population. One astonished eyewitness reported that she succeeded in forcing a mercenary commander named Lord Etienne de Vignolles, known as "La Hire" (meaning "anger" or "ire", a reflection of his inability to maintain an aristocratic calm) to confess his sins to a priest.
Her arrival had another valuable effect on the army: men who would otherwise have refused to serve Charles' defeated cause now began to volunteer for the campaign, as word that a saint was now at the head of the army began to change minds. "

The accounts of her campaigns into English-held areas include:

The surviving accounts say that the position was carried after Joan rode up with her banner, encouraging the troops up and over the ramparts. The English casualties totaled 114 dead and 40 captured. Her role in this engagement would become typical: sources from both factions quote her as saying that she preferred to carry her banner into battle (rather than a weapon, as is sometimes supposed), since, as she explained, she didn't want to harm anyone; and there are many eyewitness accounts which repeatedly describe her encouraging the troops to greater efforts by placing herself in the same danger that they themselves faced.  

Joan's biggest victory came in 1429 at Orleans, a town under siege from the British. Leading French assaults against them, they retreated across the Loire River.

In July 1429, the coronation of Charles VII took place after forces led by Joan had taken several towns in enemy territory. In 1430, Joan was captured by the Burgundians, an ancient tribe with Scandinavian heritage, and brought to the English commander at Rouen. She was put to trial, accused of witchcraft, dressing like a man and heresy, with 70 charges in total held against her. Charles VII made no attempt to come to her defence as he wanted to distance himself against her due to the charges of witchcraft. Joan was held for a year and threatened with death to the point where she yielded and signed a coerced confession denying she had received divine guidance, but after wearing men's clothing several days later, she was handed a death sentence. At the age of 19, Joan was publicly burnt at the stake in Rouen.

20 years after her death, due to her increasing popularity, a new post-humous trial was ordered by Charles VII and her name was cleared. She was canonised by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. She is revered in France- her image was carried by Allied troops into battle with them in World War 1 in France and is the patron saint of France.

While training with the aim of competing at Battle of the Nations next year, during the good and bad times, I keep these people's amazing feats of endurance and strength so I can hopefully-


Fight fearlessly in the lists like Ronda Rousey

"My first injury ever was a broken toe, and my mother made me run laps around the mat for the rest of the night. She said she wanted me to know that even if I was hurt, I was still fine."

With the deadly aim of Simo Häyhä



"I did my duty and what I was told to do as well as I could."

To bring home the prize like Kerri Strug

"It's important to push yourself further than you think you can go each and every day- as that is what separates the good from the great."


Keep diving into training like Chloe McCardel



"Firstly there isn't any specific mental training you can do but doing cold water swims for 6 hours or more is very challenging for your body because it's so cold your mind has to become strong and has to become determined to complete your training swims. Your body wants to get out of the water and your mind has to say no. That's kind of the way to do mental training. When things are tough in the English Channel, e.g if the tide turns against you and you're being swept away from land it can be very demoralising as you can be swimming on the spot for hours on end. That's when most people fail the single crossings when they are only 1km or 2km from touching French shore. It can be very hard when your muscles are in pain or if you vomit or your body gets cold or your feet aren't going too well. That's when your mental toughness has to kick in and you rely on your support crew more."


With the ability to forgive and endure seemingly insurmountable physical obstacles like Louis Zamperini:



"To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don't give up, don't give in. There is always an answer to everything"

And to hold faith in God through unrelenting adversity like Joan d'Arc

"If I am not, may God put me there; if I am, may God so keep me."