Feeling the Olympic Spirit

Trafton B.

February 28, 2010 - 8:23 PM

I'm sitting here on my couch watching the 2010 Olympic closing ceremonies from Vancouver, BC and I can't help but feel inspired. I don't know how anyone could under appreciate these great games.
Winter Olympics gets their fair share of flak because they're apparently not as important as the summer games, but I think that's just not fair. True, the summer games have been around for longer and have their roots in ancient Greece. But the winter games have meaning just the same. I'm still excited to watch downhill skiing. Every kid watches the bobsled events, even if it's just to look at Sanka and Derice on the Jamaican bobsled team. And the biathlon is probably one of the craziest combinations of two different sports - Nordic skiing and rifle shooting - there is. And don't even tell me there isn't history in the winter games because the biathlon has roots in 19th Century Norwegian military training.

The Vancouver games sure didn't disappoint, especially for Team USA. Shaun White asserted his dominance once again in the Men's Halfpipe. But it's not only that he repeated gold, it's that he flew higher and busted out tricks that other contenders haven't even dreamed of landing yet. He secured the gold after his first run, so for his victory lap he whips out the 1260 Double McTwist, a trick he invented and no one has ever attempted before, on the last trick and beats his own score. Unstoppable.

Apollo Anton Ohno and Shani Davis lead the way in short-track and long-track speed skating. Steve Holcomb wins the first bobsledding gold medal for the US in 62 years.

USA ice hockey tries to repeat the "miracle on ice" from the 1980 Lake Placid games, yet both our men and women's teams fall just short to the heavily favored Canadian teams. Two silvers is nothing to scoff about.

And the games had their fair share of tears and tenderness as well. Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgia luger, loses control of his sled and tragically crashes on the last turn of the course; a humbling way to start things off to say the least. Joannie Rochette, Canadian figure skater, overcomes the unexpected passing away of her mother by winning the bronze medal only a few days later.

How about the opening ceremonies, when one of the four mechanical arms malfunctions and completely throws off the balance of the stage? In true Canadian form, they tweak the closing ceremonies and have a mechanic run on stage to raise the fourth arm and successfully light the torches. I applaud the humility.

Even funnier is the curling phenomenon that swept through Wall Street. That's right, who read the New York Times article? Wall Street traders would get off a full day of yelling, selling and trading stocks and decompress over a few curling matches. What the heck, why not?

I'm already looking forward to London 2012, Sochi 2014 and Rio de Janeiro 2016