Olympics

The Olympic Opening Ceremonies began today and I found myself underwhelmed with mixed feelings. I say underwhelmed because the Games are rarely something that gets me as worked up as I feel I ought to be for an event of such magnitude. The topic of the Olympics always stirs up a mixture of emotions for me; I love the idea of the games, and I love opportunities for our great country to show its stuff, but I find the sports usually quite boring to sit through and the coverage and interviews often more so.

At this point I should mention that it's not Olympic sports that I find boring per se, but that I find it tedious to watch almost any sport on TV (baseball is my one exception (if it's the Blue Jays), but even then there are some days I just can't do it).

An example of what I mean is happening as I sit here at 10:40pm typing this post. Men's cycling is currently being televised and it is far from interesting. Some people find golf or tennis or yes even baseball boring but at least there are variances in these sports that can make it interesting. But biking?!? The announcer just said it's been a pretty good race so far, and I am wondering what makes a race good or bad. I will admit that some of the comments made are interesting, and the announcers do try to explain a lot of what is really going on. It is not my intent to sound snobbish, I do understand that what these athletes are doing is not easy, and there is more to it than what is seen by the "non-biking" viewer; but as a non-biking viewer I find it difficult to care.

CBC has already been doing a good job of breaking up the cycling coverage with other things that some may find interesting, and I can take a bit at a time. I do plan on watching the games and cheering for Canada as much as I can (both time wise and interest wise).

I really do love the idea of a true international competition. Baseball has a World Series, which is anything but a World series. The Olympics offer the opportunity for countries to put their best athletes forward to compete. It must be a totally awe-inspiring experience for those with the talent and drive to compete at this level. What a great reward for all their hard work. The Games also provide regular citizens the chance to celebrate their fellow country men and women, and their country. I like that, and like supporting Canada by watching our athletes.

One other thing that I wanted to mention was the fact that the host city is different every year. CBC does a great job of showing us the history and culture of the host city and country. I do like learning more about other parts of the world in a fun and interesting manner, especially since I have never been further east than Quebec and briefly through a couple northern United States. I would someday love to see more of the world, but deep down feel like that is unlikely to ever happen (not that it is necessarily unlikely, just that it feels that way to me). This will be one thing that I intend to push myself to do: To leave my comfort zone, make the plans that need to be made to get out of North America, and take the risks that are involved.