A little perseverance can go a long way. At least that’s what I tell myself every morning when I drag my aching body out of bed and trundle off the gym for an hour of low-effort, high-agitation exercise. Despite my best efforts and the steady stream of sweat that drips lazily from my fingertips, my daily sojourns to ‘The Iron Paradise’ (as our former staff writer Sam Mangioni would call it) appear to have had little impact on the outside.
A younger me probably would have thrown in the towel by now, disenfranchised with the notion of non-immediate success, but as I’ve gotten older, I have realised that fitness, like anything worth achieving, is a practice, not an end destination. You’ll never really ‘complete’ the gym; you’ll merely make marginal improvements day after day.
That very theme carried through much of the coverage we focused on this month. From new incarnations of old favourites to the revitalisation of a tired genre at the hands of an iconic duo, August was a month in which reprisal and refinement underpinned almost everything. Take automaker Audi, for instance.
With the marque’s new A6 Sportback e-tron, the industry edges closer to the fabled 1,000km EV range, a barrier that has long represented the final frontier for electric vehicle adoption. According to Audi, “over 1,300 simulations and countless hours” went into producing the new car, with each incremental step pushing society towards a bold new future. More than just a race against distance; it’s a race against time.
Someone who also knows the rigours of a ticking clock is Hugh Jackman. At 55, the Deadpool & Wolverine star has never looked better, and it is his unwavering dedication to health and fitness (much like my own haha) that is responsible for his age-defying looks. It’s yet another example of the power of persistence.
Come to think of it, is there a community that better encompasses the spirit of perseverance than Australia’s Paralympic Team? With the Games officially kicking off in Paris this week, we took a deep dive into the Paralympic journey, explaining the athletes’ battle to improve not only their performance but also their recognition. For just the second time in the Games’ history, Australian Paralympic medallists will receive the same financial support as their Olympic counterparts.
To me, it’s a testament not only to the pursuit of athletic excellence but also to the hard work of Paralympic activists and organisations, who have campaigned tirelessly for years for Paralympic athlete pay parity.
So, when you tune into the Paralympic Games this month and watch our Aussie athletes take on the world, know that each medal means a little more. It just goes to show what a little perseverance can really do.
Editor-in-Chief
