Olympic Withdrawal

I am a huge fan of the Olympics. An Olympic geek, if you will. First, the ideology that nations come together and compete in a peaceful manor, inspires me. Second, the level of training and dedication that the athletes undergo amazes me. Next I enjoy learning about other cultures. Lastly the moments of sportsmanship that can be observed touches my heart. Maybe I am just an ideologist and I find the good in the games because I look for them. True friendships can be forged from these events. Even rivalries are awesome and help push you beyond your limits (thinking about the USA/Australian Swim teams of the past). The older I get, the less it’s about nationalism, and the more it’s about individual athletes and teams doing their best.

I began watching the Olympic Games in 1984 and have been hooked ever since. Back then it was all about the Women’s Volleyball team, Women’s Gymnastics (hey, I was 14), and Track & Field for me. When the 2000 games came around my main event was Swimming, it was the only sport in HS that I enjoyed even though I was horrible at it. As time marches on I am really a fan of all of the events. For the 2020 games I was really looking forward to Judo (which I watch on YouTube all of the time anyways), Surfing ( also a YouTube favorite), and the Pentathlon.

Since 1984 I have been fortunate enough to be in a position to watch about any and every event televised until the Rio games. The London Games was a media barrage consisting of multiple TV channels, live streaming events, recorded streaming events and mini docs on demand along with a ton of related text material to consume. It was almost as good as being there, I am sure. Maybe more so since I was able to see just about everything as one point or another. The Rio Olympics was about the same as far as coverage, but I didn’t have cable and the internet filled all of the holes that NBC didn’t.

2020 has been a rough year since the get-go, and made worse by the postponement of the Tokyo Games. The games have been put on hiatus before from wars so this is a first. Hopefully it will be back next year, then I will only have to wait three years until the next Summer games. Perhaps I may even get into the Winter sports so I have even more to enjoy.

When I was younger I used to go through a sort of depression when the games ended. Not this time. Last year as the closing ceremonies began to wind down I felt a sense of having been a part of it all. One day I may be fortunate enough to attend an actual Olympic event but until then I’ll always be there in spirit, and watching everything that the official Olympics account on YouTube has to offer… https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTl3QQTvqHFjurroKxexy2Q