Enjoying The WInter Games

I don’t know what it is with some people, especially other men but when you admit to being a fan of the Winter Olympics they look at you in a rather strange way. I love football, baseball, basketball, hockey and the other main sports but count me as a guy who’s not afraid to come out of the closet and express my joy in watching snowboarding, skiing, speed skating and more and if you’ve seen the TV ratings then you know I’m not alone. These Winter Olympics are great because being in Canada everything seems close to home and much of what we see on TV is live, which is really difficult when the games are in Europe or the Far East.

Frankly I love the fact that for two weeks you get to watch sports that are pretty much foreign, except for once every four years. Only now do you get to appreciate the endurance and conditioning it takes to compete in events like cross country skiing and speed skating and the all-out almost reckless quality for someone to race down a luge track or downhill skiing course. Just because we don’t fully understand some of the sports, like curling and skeleton doesn’t mean we can’t marvel at what if often takes to represent your country on the biggest stage there is.

What makes the Winter Olympics unique are not just the sports but the athletes themselves. Sure there are those who earn six-figure salaries and are national heroes but there are plenty who compete in relative obscurity and have had to make incredible sacrifices to fulfill a life-long dream. Plus they are not what many of us think are typical athletes but more like characters who could star in a remake of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
However I like a lot of these “dudes” and often they are refreshing from the overhyped, overpaid, overbearing pros we are accustomed to today.

You can have your Super Bowl and World Series presentations which have become staged events but I’ll take that moment when an athlete has a gold medal placed around his or her neck and then stands proudly as their national anthem is played. For two weeks every four years you can open your mind to the idea that sports without a ball can still be captivating.