More on the Games

So, the other day I professed my love for the Olympics. The most obvious reason for that addicition is clear - non-stop sports coverage, and exposure to a lot sports I don't get to watch very often. However, I'm drawn to the Olympics for other reasons as well. Overall, I find it to be much more compelling than the American professional sports events that dominate my TV, my sports page, and the internet.

There are a few reasons why I find this to be true. The first one is the athletes themselves. While the days where the games were the exclusive domain of amatuers are long gone, the reality is that 99% of the athletes that will be competing in Beijing in August are not the overpaid, overyhyped, overexposed, celebrity athletes that we see all the time in the States. If you don't follow Olympic sports in between Olympics, and if you stay away from Olympic basketball and a couple other sports, the faces you're going to see are predominantly those that you've never seen before, and that you'll never see again after the Olympics, save a special few whose performances/stories come to define that particular games and live on. That distinction makes your average Olympic athlete infinitely more "human" than your average pro sports superstar. I may not be able to relate to having world class athletic ability, but I can definitely relate to kind of places a lot of these athletes come from, and where they are headed. As much as I, being "show me the sports" guy rail against all the various human interest pieces that dominate Olympic coverage these days, I have to admit, I generally find them pretty worthwhile.

The second reason is the finality and urgency around the Olympics. In American pro sports, there's "always" next year. While it's true that in certain cases, certain players or teams may not have a next year, there's that perpetual promise of a new year. The Olympics, on the other hand, come around only every 4 years, and in many sports, athletes are fortunate if they even get a 2nd shot at their Olympic dream. And what that dream is can be so diverse depending on who you are dealing with. I'm watching the track and the swimming trials this year, and there are athletes laying everything on the line just to make the team, knowing that they stand no realistic chance of any kind of actual Olympic glory - they just want to be able to say they made it. And you have, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, someone like Michael Phelps, who is seeking to rewrite Olympic history, and yet still clearly sees his opportunity to be on the team as something never to be taken for granted. It's all so fleeting. Is there another venue in sports where you'd find a story like Derek Redmond back in 1992, a 400 meter runner from Britain, one of the medal favorites, who tore a hamstring less than halfway into his semi-final heat, and yet desperately tried to hobble his way to the finish line, just to say he finished the race. (If you don't remember this signature moment, he ultimately was unable to finish on his own and his father helped him across the finish line) I don't really think that there is.

And that leads me to the story of one of my Messiah classmates, Chris Boyles, who was the 2002 NCAA Division III decathalon champion, and who has continued his career in the decathalon, which led him to the US Olympic Trials over the weekend. Chris came in as a rather longshot to make the team anyhow, and his chances completely evaporated in the 2nd event of the competition, when he fouled on all 3 of his long jump attempts and received no score. He pressed on, however, until the high jump aggravated a ankle that was still tender from recent surgery an just made it too much to go on. It's really hard for me to imagine having 4 years of training and dedication just blow up in the space of a few minutes like that, and to be deprived of the opportunity to even continue to compete. That's just how fleeting it all is. And that's what makes the Games themselves so compelling and dramatic to me.