In a world full of challenges, it's hard to understand how a 29 year old can take their own life. Especially one fit for world-class competition.

You might remember his name, Albert Heppner. He was an Olympic hopeful who apparently took his own life last week after failing to qualify for the Olympics in the 50K race-walk event.

Heppner was a top athlete in his field, where he won two AAU Junior Olympic Championships, an All-American at the NAIA division and later accomplished several top finishes in big races over the years.

We all dream for the big prize to be somebody. What ever that "somebody" means, isn't exactly clear. It has many meanings for different people.

A steel worker wishes to provide for his family and goes to work with illusions of grandeur; a housewife stands at the sink doing dishes while dreams of a ballet dancer spin inside her head; the night desk clerk thumbs through a magazine wishing he were there.

What a wonderful world it could be.

Some who knew Heppner said they knew how obsessive he was with the Olympic dream. One even went as far as saying he wasn't surprised at Heppner apparently taking his own life.

But no one could stop it.

What's really perplexing is that Albert Heppner still had one more shot to qualify for the magical bid just two months later. But he gave up like a top spinning out of control, or a man on skis heading for a tree but fails to divert.

Heppner was a member of the U.S. Army's World Class Athlete Program. He was a college graduate. He also had the privilege of living at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

A lot of hard work to stay there but what a cushion of air to ride.

It's amazing to think how many of us would kill to be an athlete of privilege, to live in any Olympic village as a top athlete as Heppner was and yet, the 29 year-old couldn't realize, or appreciate what he really had. I say this because it's obvious he wouldn't have killed himself over a goal he still had a chance to achieve, if he really understood, or better yet, appreciated how high he had already climbed.

Maybe there was something else that drove Heppner that we don't know about. All said he was a good guy, that, I have no doubt. What's bothersome may be hampering all of society and that is the fact that nothing seems to be good enough for many Americans anymore. Sports are a form of art like writing--the intellectual and the physical, the antithesis of one to the other.

Heppner was an aspiring journalist. Sadly, even those two avenues, rich with creative possibilities, weren't enough to exorcise the demons that plagued him.

How sad for any society.