Holy frickmas.
DUDES.
IT’S THE OLYMPICS!!!
And hot damn do I ever love the Olympics.
Because hot damn do I ever love sport.
I don’t love corporations, or globalization, or nationalism, or any of the other buzzwords that Olympic detractors love to trot out at two and four-year intervals. I don’t love Coke, and I don’t love idiotic, phallic mascots (although my cat sure does love her Quatchi), and I don’t love doping scandals, or unsportsmanlike conduct – issues that are sure to plague these games as they do every other international amateur athletic event.
I don’t love any of these things.
I just love sport.
And I respect and admire these phenomenal athletes who have sacrificed so much – more than I’ll ever know or understand – to push their bodies to the physical limit in an attempt to (pretty much) attain the impossible.
And I cannot for the life of me understand how people can want to take away from this – take away from those who have trained their entire lives for a chance to perform in the world’s spotlight, for that all too brief moment when the collective mass of coagulated humanity turns away from whatever opiate that is currently keeping them apathetic, and docile, uninterested and disengaged – and watches.
If but for a moment, becomes re-engaged.
Ignore all the superfluous, gratuitous, pornographic background noise that is produced from the monolithic and terrifying Olympic machine; ignore the masturbatory circus that is the IOC.
Ignore everything but the events and the players.
At least I will.
I do.
Because when you do, it is magic.
Here are three memories (in no particular order) I have of watching this magic. They are events that helped shape me not only as an athlete, but as an individual.
1.) Donovan Bailey’s gold medal 100m final – Atlanta Olympics, June 24, 1996.
Location: The basement of my family’s house, Vancouver, wearing my older sister`s stretched and faded Los Angeles 1984 t-shirt, sun burnt, exhilarated, awe-struck, inspired. To this day whenever I see 9.84 I think of that moment.
2.) Myriam Bedard’s double gold, biathlon – Lillehamer Olympics, 1994
Location: The TV room of my family’s house (different from the previous post), Vancouver. I remember the how tight my chest was, as if my pride has someone squeezed all the air from my lungs. I was so happy for not only my fellow country woman, but for all Canadian women. I cried when my mother told me Myriam had been selected to carry the flag at the closing ceremonies. (It’s very unfortunate that her horrible actions post-games have come to define her memory for many.)
3.) Matthias Steiner’s gold in the 105+ kg weightlifting – Beijing Olympics, 2008
Location: My tiny 600sq foot home as a newlywed, Vancouver. Completely sleep deprived due to staying up all night to watch live feeds on cbc.ca I wept when Matthias won, having learned that his wife – a German woman from Saxony – had died in a car accident just months before his Olympic triumph. He receives his medal holding a picture of her as tears stream down his face.
What about you cats? What are you excited for?
Oh, and as a postscript (and counterargument to this entire post), take a look at The Hater’s Guide to the London Olympics. As someone who has lived in the UK, and who LOVES the Olympics, it is bloody funny as HECK.
Rant and Roll 
I’m pumped for some volleyball! This year I also hope to watch more soccer and swimming. And for some reason I really like watching Olympic shooting…
I thought the opening ceremonies were neat; especially getting to watch the coverage from a different (Canadian) perspective.
That’s definitely true – watching both the CTV and NBC coverage you get a different take on the games. I too love watching volleyball. :)
That was an excellent post today. Thanks so much for sharing. I really enjoyed reading it very much. Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy writing? Join Us Today –
Writers Wanted
Thank you so much! And thanks for stopping by :)
i’m a smidgeon older than you … i remember my dad yelling at Billy Mills (American Indian) winning the 1964 Tokyo Olympix 10k run!
(and i rue that i was working in Tuba City, Arizona, in the mid 1980’s and had to return home, and the following weekend was a running race in the area where B. Mills was to appear. I SHOULD HAVE STAYED AN EXTRA DAY OR SO JUST TO JOG ALONGSIDE HIM!).
I watched much of the 1972 and 1976 olympix — but in 1976 a fellow named Don Kardong was 4th in the Marathon (those olympix were in Quebec, eh?) and i met him a few years later and he had several funny stories)
the 1984 olympic bicycle road race champs were u.s.’ connie carpenter and alexi grewal. i spent a wonderful half day chatting with connie at a race in my home town the year before, and a brief chat with alexi also the year before when i won the ‘citizens’ (low life wanna be racers) and he won the top category Telluride Road Race, he was amicable to me … avoiding the press and papparazzi.
Those are such cool stories! Thank you so much for sharing :) I love to hear about other peoples Olympic moments!
also, read my post: ” … hugging max schmidt” at the ( i think, also) 1976 olympics …
(and read the Bowerman & the Men of Oregon Book)
Will definitely do!
Another great post! Here, I have nominated you for One Lovely blog award. Here is the link…
http://reeflections.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/my-picks-awards-and-me/
Regards
BC
Yowza! I am totally honoured. Thank you so much Ms. Charm!
The Olympics are awesome. I heard Phelps was off his the game for a while but it seem like things are looking up! I look forward mostly for the gymnastics and soccer, sadly dad keeps forgetting to get the Olympic channels on Direct TV but are there live feeds on the net? I’ll have to check …. I get updates on the BBC though so I think that counts. Thanks for sharing your memories of games, Ethel :)
P.S: ”The Hater’s Guide to the London Olympics” was fricken hilarious!
I know right? The language is more than a little blue, but I was seriously in tears at some points…
Hey Ms. D. – you can definitely get live streaming on ye olde internets. Unfortunately, most of them don’t have commentary but you can pretty much pick and choose what it is you want to watch.
I too love gymnastics and soccer. I can wait to have some more time this weekend to really watch some events!
xx