I do love watching the Olympic Games.
That’s a very strange thing to hear coming from me, someone that follows very few sports. But every 2 years I follow the games rapped attention.
Why should this be?
Good question. I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the last few days.
It was the sad event even before the games started in Vancourver, the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili on a training run for the Luge, that gave me the answer.
I don’t really follow the games for the sport, but it has to be said one of the few sports I do routinely follow is Alpine Skiing, it’s the emotion of it all that get’s me.
There is something about an Olympic title it seems. The golds won at an olympic games seems to have a greater value than any other championship gold, world cup or even world record. I don’t know why this should be. Maybe the fact that the Olympics does have such a global audience? Maybe, but I’d like to think it’s more fundamental than that, the Olympics is the original, it is the ideal of the sporting world. To bet you opponent by being stronger, faster, by going further, higher or longer.
Maybe I’ve got an idealised view of the games? Maybe they are not like that now? Maybe it’s all about winning to get you sponsor wider global appeal?
I hope it’s not like that, but somehow I have the sneaking feeling that things could start going that way.
But for the moment, I watch the games and I feel the emotions. The sweet taste of success, the bitter pill of failure and gruelling hours of training the athletes go through.
The nerves and anticipation at the start line, the initial chaos of the start, the zen like calm as the actions that have been trained in, by endless repetitive training, take over. The elation at the finish line and the final feeling that you and that moment when you take the podium and you feel like, you and you alone stand for your whole country.
Yes I love the emotional side of the games. I cheer for any Brit’s in the games and if there aren’t any, I pick a competitor at random and support them. And yes in that moment of glorious victory or crushing defeat, I feel for them and sometimes even cry with them.
I felt the loss of Nodar, even through I didn’t know anything about him before his death
Yes I, really do love watching the Olympics.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 23:13 and is filed under Personal, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.