The Olympic Thinker

The Olympics have come and gone, but I wanted to give my random thoughts... the commentary of my brain... about the most watched games of all time.
Opening Ceremonies: Awesome, amazing, brilliant. It's hard to think of words to describe the emotion that they captured and the wonder they inspired. As an artistic type, I was mesmerized, but I think anyone would have been. The Opening Ceremonies are almost like the Olympics of design, drama, and dance, except the winner is chosen well beforehand and then they must live up to expectations. The Chinese surpassed expectations. I would have loved to have been there with an excellent camera, you know, the kind the real photographers use. Every shot would have been good. I wonder how many millions... billions of pictures are taken over the course of the whole games, by professionals and spectators alike. (does a period go at the end of that sentence or a question mark?) (It looks funny to put a question mark at the end of the words "question mark.") I know there's no way for anyone to ever know the number of pictures taken, but these are the kinds of questions I pose to myself.
Every Olympic games, my goal is to see three competitions, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming. I did get to watch gymnastics this year and, since my hubby and I like to watch a little TV before bed most nights, and since that was pretty much all that was on for the first week, we watched it together. Men aren't supposed to like gymnastics, not even men's gymnastics. But, my man began to appreciate the difficulty and athleticism of the men AND women who compete in these events. He began asking about the scoring and even making sympathetic grunts or groans to help the gymnasts balance or to participate in their mishaps. I thought that was pretty cool.
I saw a little bit of the rhythmic gymnastics. I thought I would miss them completely, because I had no idea when they were on. I just happened to turn the TV on midday last week and there they were, women who could be mistaken for toothpicks bringing their leg up behind them and touching the bottom of their foot to their sternum while tossing a hoop several stories up in the air. I was so excited! About 5 minutes after I sat down to watch, they cut to commercial and came back to.... softball. SOFTBALL! I can go see the church softball game this fall if I want to watch softball. I don't know of any rhythmic gymnastics competitions around here, though. No fair! It was something about a gold-medal game or something. That's why they switched. Hmph! I suppose there was someone else somewhere in the world who turned on their TV and muttered some undecipherable words of disappointment under their breath when they saw rhythmic gymnastics was on, and then became elated to see them cut to softball. Well... good for them.
I saw no synchronized swimming. For some reason or other, I saw plenty of swimming, though. This guy... what's his name?... oh yeah, Michael somebody-or-other. He was swimming and winning all these gold medals. Seriously though, I heard an interview with him where he said that his goal at the games wasn't to win medals just to win medals, but to get people's attention and focus them on the often overlooked sport of swimming. Wow. That's somethin' else. He took responsibility for bringing the entirety of the sport to the forefront of the minds of the people of the world. That's a big job, but he made it look easy with every medal he won. This is kinda mean in an underhanded way, but I'm glad that someone is finally popular for their accomplishments and character regardless of their looks or speech. See, kinda mean... oh well. Michael Phelps doesn't read my blog.
Speaking of sports that don't usually get a lot of attention... Am I the only one who had no idea that Trampoline is an Olympic sport? Trampoline? So, in all actuality, my parents may have cut my Olympic dreams short by banning me from trampolines after a friend of mine "double-bounced" me and my back was hurt so that I had to see a chiropractor for years after. I could have come back from my injuries, developed my talent and won a medal eventually. Here's a link, in case you want to check it out for yourself: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0819_sd_gtm_hl_l0987&channelcode=sportgt
I have to wonder if the gymnasts just laugh at how serious these athletes look as they flip and tumble on the trampoline. As far as I know, gymnasts use a trampoline to warm up and learn new flips and stuff. I betcha any of them could do what the trampoliners do.
Oh, and speaking of snickering at someone seriously competing... Did you see the speed walking? I would have been rolling on the floor if it hadn't felt like the Olympics were just too sacred of a situation to laugh that hard. There's a really great montage that captures the comedic aspect of this sport here:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0823_sd_mul_au_ce525&channelcode=sportat
Here are the official rules in a nutshell. "Race walking is a progression of steps so taken that the walker makes contact with the ground so that no visible (to the human eye) loss of contact occurs. The advancing leg must be straightened (i.e., not bent at the knee) from the moment of the first contact with the ground until in the vertical position." Interesting, huh?
Closing Ceremonies: What happened to all the highly coordinated people? Apparently, no one from the opening ceremonies participated in the closing ceremonies. Yes, it was still pretty cool, but, frankly, I was disappointed. The performers could hardly have been less synchronized. The concentric circles were more like lopsided ovals, the smiles of the participants in the opening ceremonies (when appropriate) were replaced by bored looks, the choreography, while fascinating at some moments, looked poorly thought out and even less rehearsed. And what was with the lit-up football players strung up by wires going up and down randomly on the perimeter of the stadium? I really was disappointed.
All in all, these games were the most memorable of my life thus far. Yes, even more so than the games in Atlanta, my home town. These games gave me an appreciation for different sports, made it possible to have "quality time" in front of the TV and gave me a convenient conversation starter in uncomfortable moments. These were the first Olympics of my daughters life and the first we have watched in our first home. They made me want to travel to China, a place that wasn't on my world-travel list previously. They made me think about politics and rights, fairness and world peace. Bob Costas interviewed a man after the closing ceremonies (I'm sorry to say I don't know who the man was, but someone important to the games, I think) and this man said that it was so inspiring to see the world come together and take a break from all their quarrels and differences for two weeks. He then wondered, if the world could do that for two weeks, why not three or why not a month, six months, etc. Unfortunately, that lovely thought will never be reality until Jesus unites us all with a new heaven and earth. Until then, the earth and all that is in it can only groan and long for His return. I bet streets of gold will be better than any gold medal and seeing Him face to face is sure not to disappoint even the highest of expectations.