Olympics and more

[mrissa]

That last entry now sounds a bit testy in my own ears. I'm sorry if I was cranky at you folks. I don't feel it, just a bit worn. Book kicking my butt. Rest of life offering many rewards and a few concerns, some of which are fairly immediate.

But hey, I've got the Olympics. timprov theorizes that if, say, slalom kayaking and women's saber fencing were on ESPN2 every weekend, I'd never want to watch them. He's probably right. But having a dose of unusual sports once every four years is about right. Even if it does feature Shut-Up-Bob Costas. (If only we lived far enough north to watch on CBC....)

When I was in junior high, we watched the Olympics with one of my best friends at the time, and when the people she didn't like would figure skate, she would shout, "Fall on your butt! Fall on your butt!" I don't want that. I don't want my favored athletes to win because of bad luck on someone else's part. I want them to be more inventive in their tumbling, to find a burst of speed at the end of the race, to be better, not to win by default. Rivalries that trickle off are no fun at all. This is why fantasy writers have climactic battles of good and evil in the first place: because evil losing because it steps wrong and sprains its ankle at a crucial moment is just not any fun to watch. (Or to write about.)

Fun to write about. I'd like to find that in the home stretch of Sampo. Here's hoping, I guess.

Comments

[keightyb.livejournal.com]

One of my best friends is married to Pablo Morales, who was a gold medalist in 1992, swimming. He won medals in 1984 as well, didn't make the 1988 cut, and, at 27, won the gold in '92... I was watching her videos of it, and it's so cool to see him at the end of the race, just being *that* much better, and winning the gold, at such an 'old' age. The look on his face is amazing. He's actually at the Olympics now, announcing. (He's the swimming and diving coach at UNL by day.) Anyway, those moments are so awesome. I agree about winning because you earned it, not because someone screwed up.

[cooperati.livejournal.com]

i totally understand the rather unexpected interest in the olympics. but, it's really like watching the superbowl. i don't watch football, and i've only been to a few games more for the novelty of participating in something that fantastic in magnitude on the scale of social events. i mean, if i had lived my entire life not having gone to a coliseum and seen men acting barbaric with tens of thousands of other spectators in attendance, i would be less for it.

but i don't watch it on tv. jeez. i played football, in highschool, which is not dissimilar to the professional form of the sport, relatively speaking. loved it. played for three years, and managed a spot on the varsity team defensive line in my junior year. there is no likeness between playing it and watching it.

and yet, i watch the superbowl. i suppose, again, for the sake of the novelty of participating in a vastly national and pro-global social event. and sometimes i lay a gentleman's wager on who will win.

so, the olympics is like that. i feel connected to rumania, to kampuchea, to ghana, if i can see them play. when i personally offer a silent and anonymous congratulations to a victor of any nationality, i give them mine, and i adopt theirs, and pretense of nationality fades momentarilly, and i am privately feeling humanity has risen an inch towards our mutual goals. even if it is a momentary feeling, it stays a worthwhile one.

whatever the personal reasons to watch the olympics, it will be shared by at least a thousand spirits, watching the games with you, anywhere in the world.

that can be beautiful, don't you think?

-=T=-

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

timprov theorizes that if, say, slalom kayaking and women's saber fencing were on ESPN2 every weekend, I'd never want to watch them. He's probably right.

He's definitely right--for me, at least. Oh, I might watch a few minutes of something before flipping channels, but nothing even close to the interest and attention that I give to any sport at the Olympics. Maybe it's just that Olympic sports are part of something bigger; you're never just watching slalom kayaking, you're watching the Olympics. Or, if nothing else, you know that in 10 minutes you'll be watching something different. (The summer Olympics might not have icy death potential, but they sure have variety.)

And if there were a way for me to beam you CBC, believe me, I would!

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the Olympic sports are different, or at least their infrastructure is inherently different that footballbasketballbaseballhockey. The people in it are playing for passion, not money, and a lot of the people watching are doing so because it's their sport too, and it's a shared passion. It's fun to watch those people, even from the outside - much more fun than watching millionaires putting on a show when they're not squabbling about contracts.