For two weeks, the eyes of the world were on Barcelona, Spain, where the Games of the XXV Olympiad were played out.

If all the world is a stage, as Shakespeare suggested, it was especially true in Barcelona during the Olymipics as the best athletes from throughout the world converged on Spain's second largest city to put their athletic skills to the supreme test.The gathering of the world's greatest athletes is something that has been going on for nearly 100 years, and this year's Olympics provided its share of triumphs and defeats, joys and heartaches.

Some great moments of courage came from the Olympics.

Actually, the Games in many ways are a slice of life - a mirror of the disappointment of defeat and the elation of victory. The Olympics, with all their glitter and fanfare, are perhaps but a reflection of life.

And in life - just as in the Olympic Games - there are many courageous gold-medal performances, although we seldom hear about them. There is no glare of TV lights, no roaring crowds cheering wildly, no headlines in the newspapers. Only the quiet joy of accomplishment, however small and inconsequential it may seem to the world.

Take the 61-year-old woman, who, after suffering extreme injuries in a serious accident, was given little chance for any quality of life, let alone being able to walk again. But after much rehabilitation and eight major surgeries, she, at long last, was able to feel a tiny flicker of triumph - she rode a child's bicycle around the block! For most adults, riding a child's bike is really not much of an accomplishment, but in her life after what she had been through it was, indeed, a great achievement. Yes, a gold-medal performance, as she hurriedly pedalled down the street, her feet rapidly churning the pedals to keep from falling over.

Or, how about the young lady who overcame a rare chronic illness to be able to complete a 10K race. "We could hardly keep back the tears as she finally came into view and crossed the finish line," wrote a friend. "To come from a child who many times had to be carried to school because she was so sick to finishing a 10K race is truly a miracle to us."

Life is full of such stories of seemingly ordinary achievements, but, in reality, are major accomplishments to those who have so much to overcome.

Are these not the true gold-medal winners? Are these not the people who have earned our admiration?

But not all gold-medal performances are overcoming physical adversities. Some great performances may be overcoming spiritual weaknesses or emotional lows. Many winning performances are achieved by those who seemingly are not doing great things.

Perhaps a gold-medal winner is a person who is honest when it may be less painful, at least for the moment, to not tell the truth, or a person who resists temptation when the pressure is great to succomb to it. Perhaps a gold-medal winner is a person who instead has developed faith, humility, love and virtue. Perhaps a gold-medal winner is a compassionate visiting teacher or caring home teacher who has touched the life of another and made the day a little brighter. Or perhaps a gold-medal winner is a loving Primary teacher who has planted a child's feet on the path of righteousness.

Yes, these are among those who are turning in gold-medal performances.

A gold-medal winner in life may not be the person who is the fastest, the strongest, the toughest, who has the admiration and cheers of the world - but the person who has the courage to overcome adversity, overcome the thorns of life, the person who, in fact, has overcome the world.

In the closing hours of His mortal life, the Savior said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:16.)

We, too, must do that.

As we seek to become like the Savior and draw closer to Him, nothing less than a gold-medal performance will earn for us the victor's crown. Nothing less than our best is good enough to earn that which our Heavenly Father has in store for His faithful children: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25:34.)

Such is the reward of life's gold-medal winners.