I put the Olympics in a different category. Maybe because there are so many different sports that I never get to see otherwise. I do like having commentary with the sports because it helps me understand the sport a little bit better. It's the too much commentating that is aggravating, and the dumb questions that athletes get asked after their event. "What was going through your mind during that run? What are you going to try and do better next period?" Umm... lets see...maybe go faster or score a goal? Duh!
I am one of those spectators whose heart would drop every time an athlete would fall, even if it wasn't Canada. And I am one of those who gets bothered when an athlete will blame everyone else for their disqualification. You are at the Olympics, you knew the rules going in, you've done this before, if your skate was out of bounds, I'm sure your coach wouldn't tell you to do that on purpose. Yes I was sad when I heard the Canadian luger got DQ'd because he didn't have his sled in on time for inspection, but again, you should know how this all works. I am one of those who wore red while watching the games at home. I am one of those Bandwagon Jumpers, but without "one if those" there would be no one watching the Olympics.
I cry easily. I cried at almost all the Olympic commercials on TV, especially the Tim Horton one. I cried when the athlete from Georgia died, when Joannie Rochette skated after her mother died, when Alex Bilodeau hugged his brother with Cerebral Palsy after he got the first gold medal, or whenever the national anthem was played for the gold medalist. My heart fell when the female skier went into the crevasse, when the Canadian athlete apologized to our country for letting us down and not winning the medal, when all those crazy ski cross racers fell, or when a bobsled would turn over and the guys would finish their run upside down.
But I also get excited very easily. When we did win our first gold medal, when the curling teams advanced to the final, when Virtue and Moir skated that absolutely beautiful dance routine, when the Women's hockey team won, and of course who will ever forget Sidney Crosby's winning goal.
These games for me were without a doubt the most exciting ones. I say this for a few reasons. The biggest one is because my kids are 5 and 6 and were REALLY into the games as well. My son would ask about each sport and learned what the times meant and when it was a good run or a bad run. He especially liked curling, and would keep me up to speed with scores when I couldn't be watching the TV, speed skating was the other favorite. My daughter had made a flag in school and she would proudly wave it whenever something great happened. It was exciting that the games were in Vancouver, it was great to hear family and friends give their accounts of the events from their back yard so to speak.
Also I think this is what we as a country needed at this time. Like my family, give us any reason to get together and it's a party! This was a great reason to celebrate, to get together with our hearts and show our support. I know some of you are gagging right now at all the cheesiness of this. But you have to admit, you were part of it. Listening to people in all forms of media they seem to have the same feeling, this games was HUGE in spirit, from all over the world. Except for Russian leader Putin who was disappointed in their country's medal count, your country's time is coming, in fact it is coming in 2014. I honestly wish your country the same success as ours in hosting the games.
Stephen Brunt did some video essays through out the games and the one I love the most was on the country's spirit through out the games.( see next post to watch, just have some patience). No question we started out rough, I began to think it was me and would not watch the live broadcast but would wait till the re-run of it. But we still all cheered our athletes on, we still wore red, we still had maple leafs on anything and everything, we were still proud. Then we got our game on. Which just fuelled what was already happening. Like Stephen brunt said, " we always had the swagger". I will still probably wear red for a while longer, and I hope others will as well. To ALL the athletes, even those who didn't medal, way to go! I could never even dream of trying to get to the Olympics, so the fact that you even got there, is huge !
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