I love the Olympics. I love being exposed to other countries; I love watching athletes stretch to win and I love experiencing the thrills of victory with them. I’m not such a huge fan of experiencing loss, but that’s part of it and for those who lose gracefully, I watch with a sense of pride in their humanity. I love the human interest stories surrounding the athletes. These are real, live people with families and heartbreaks, struggles and joys. Those are the things that built each of these people into the competitors that they are.
I love watching the athletes learn to interact with those from other countries, making friends and building bridges. These are experiences they will carry for the rest of their lives. These are relationships that they’ll always have. How exciting!
When we canceled our cable television, my access to the Olympic games faded and since I was busy with a million other things, I let it go, only able to keep an eye on the statistics. And while I don’t mean for this post or any comments to start a discussion about the lack of television access, I’m finding ways to be able to watch many of the events I want to see. I had to. I couldn’t stand being away from it any longer.
We’re going to hear all sorts of ugly stories come from the media – whether it’s the dangerous water in Rio, the athletes who were eliminated because of doping or multitudes of other problems. The media can’t help but tell us horrific stories and we can’t help but be fascinated and then gossip among ourselves, re-living the ugliness that they deliver.
I’ll do my best to ignore all of that because I’d much rather watch swimmers cut through the water and feel a rush of excitement as they hit the edge of the pool or beach volleyball teams dive into the sand to snag the ball just at the edge of the boundary. I will hold my breath as an archer’s bow slices through the air in search of its target or as scullers race across the water.
Do you enjoy watching the Olympics? What are your favorite events?
