olympics

today is the last day of the 2010 winter olympics and i am about to go into mourning. i love the olympics and these two weeks every two years are my favorite in the sporting world. despite, or maybe because of, my utter lack of athletic ability i love watching sports. i like baseball, hockey and football and spend hours watching espn during the non-olympic times, but nothing compares to watching the olympics.

my love of these games seems to be at complete odds with my favorite sports analysts, though. many are only interested in the hockey games, and look down on nbc for airing what they call the marque events of the games--figure skating and skiing--and sending hockey games to the cable networks. the analysts make it seem that no serious sports fan can like watching the olympic games and that the most important sports are the ones that we are inundated with all the time.

in actuality, that is what makes the olympics so great. when else would i spend saturday night watching bobsledding? or a sunday afternoon watching cross country skiing? the competition is world class, so i know that the events are going to be exciting. the personal stories of athletes give me people to root for. most of these athletes have no real fame or fortune outside of their olympic experience, which puts them at a stark contrast to the over-payed, over-hyped athletes of the national sports leagues.

most of all, though, the teams in the olympics are not split by state or region, but rather country. when patriotism is combined with the sport and the stories there is really nothing better. when an otherwise unknown speedskater performs better than she is expected to, i'm excited by the sport, thrilled for her as a person, and proud that someone from my country could upset the best athletes in the world. the combination of those three things does not happen at any other sports venue.

i will root for the hockey team, but no more than i have rooted for the americans who had historic results in the nordic combined, or the american skiers who lived up to the high expectations set for them, or the american ice dancers--yes the ice dancers--for whom winning a medal was more than they could have thought. for two weeks, i had the opportunity to root for people who live ordinary lives with extraordinary athletic abilities. it is much more fun to root for them than the baseball, basketball, or football athletes that i will never be able to identify with because of their superhuman status. it is 2012 yet?