I heart the Olympics.
Sports are usually about a bunch of guys scoring points against a bunch of other guys, and it often involves a lot of complicated rules and lots of standing around in between short violent bouts of action.
But the Olympics are about human beings against physics, about finding the limits of your own body and then pushing past those limits. It's not even about the Gold (but, really, it's all about the Gold, right? I mean, Silver, Bronze...who the hell cares?) it's about doing your personal best with the world watching. I love the theatricality of it, the drama of each struggle whether that struggle is with the other competitors, the clock, or your own demons.
I'm typing this while watching the Men's super-G (I don't even know what that means, but it seems to involve guys skiing very fast down a terrifyingly steep mountain). The commentators mentioned that the athletes only got a chance to inspect the course once this morning which means they would need "a good memory and a lot of nerve".
What's not to love about that? "A good memory and a lot of nerve." It's like a proverb about life or something.
Oh goodness, they are going fast.
I have been watching all the coverage since it began, but I actually have probably only SEEN about three quarters of it because a lot of the time I'm watching with my hands over my eyes. Not only am I worried about them falling and hurting themselves, but sometimes I get so wrapped up in who I want to win (cough Evan Lysacek, men's figure skating cough) that I almost can't watch them perform. I basically closed my eyes every time it looked like Evan was going to do a jump because I didn't want to see him fall. Which, as it turns out, I needn't have bothered because he ROCKED IT!
Oh Bode Miller, please don't go so fast, I worry about you. Oh thank goodness, he made it down alive and in FIRST PLACE! Let's see if he can hold onto it...here comes a Canadian OH GOD HE FELL! Oh he's OK. Got right back up. Do you see what these boys do to my heart? Lindsey Vonn was the worst because not only did I really really REALLY want her to win, but I was also afraid that she would hurt herself, knowing that she came into the games ALREADY INJURED. Who does that? Why was she even training in the first place, doesn't she know that's dangerous?
Yeah.
Basically I become everyone's mother.
I really shouldn't shout at the TV, I think my neighbors think I'm crazy.
OK, I'm going to leave you now, I just felt inspired to share.
Later,
Jules
