Saturday, February 13, 2010

Olympics = Easy to Love


If you're not watching, you're missing out.

In a matter of three hours - not to mention it was only day one - the world saw an incredible amount of incredible moments:

-Holland's Sven Kramer won the 5000m long track speed skating event and then gave the international viewing audience its first look at a truly Olympic celebration. Kramer jumped the outer railing, basically hurdled another obstacle and embraced his family all in one passionately emotional show of happiness. There are no boring Olympic moments.

-A bit after 8:00 p.m., Apolo Ohno decided to tell tell his first heat in the 1500m short track that they didn't train nearly enough with a passing move that could only be called legendary...or an every-race occurrence, in Ohno's case.

-Then in the final of that same event, no one needed a seat as the Koreans swept the medals and kept Ohno and fellow American J.R. Celski off the podium.

-BUT WAIT! Two of the Koreans collide and crash into the padding! America takes Silver and Bronze! Amazing! (Note: At this point, I really wanted an American flag to drape around myself while I sung (screamed) the national anthem...if only I knew what was to come in twenty minutes...)

-The night's best moment: We'd been following the women's moguls competition all night, and when the finals came around, I found my allegiance being strongly challenged. See, I'm a genuine sports fan. That means I like good stories, genuine athletes, and wonderful competition.

So...with Canada's well-publicized home-soil gold medal drought riding on Jenn Heil and Hannah Kearney standing at the starting line as the last moguler to ski, I was quite torn. I wanted Canada to get off the schnide so badly, but I wanted America to break through and win its first gold of this Games. But the best part? No matter what happened, I was going to be thrilled for the winner, and that's what the Olympics are supposed to be about - rooting for everyone like golf fans root for everyone (except Vijay Singh).

Kearney crossed the line after a nearly-flawless run and we were awaiting final judging. Oh, the suspense that only the Olympics can bring. When we saw the (Rank: 1) on the screen, the room exploded. The only thing missing from the fully-American celebration was, again, a Flag...pity.

We'll get one soon, don't worry.

Thanks for reading. I love the Olympics.

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