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March 11, 2010
Evan Luse
When you think about major sports you think about baseball, basketball and football—maybe hockey. But without a doubt the thought of “skeleton” does not cross your cranium.
Skeleton is a sport known purely as an Olympic event. After a 50 meter head start, competitors race down an icy hill face first on a metal and fiberglass sled that resembles the shape of a human skeleton. No, it’s not child’s play, it’s for an Olympic gold medal—the same gold medal that legends Carl Lewis and Michael Phelps have on their mantelpiece at home. And yes, it is just as entertaining as watching any other sport, Olympic or not.
The winter Olympics are often regarded as the “off” Olympics, with the summer games typically receiving a greater amount of hype with gymnastics, swimming and basketball leading the charge. But through the 2010 Vancouver Olympics I have been reminded of one thing: these quirky, peculiar and dangerous games are wildly entertaining. Think about it, on any given Monday you can plop on the couch and flick your way to ESPN and find a basketball, football or baseball game. However, watching a man cross-county ski for four kilometers and then whip out a rifle in boss-like fashion and knock down five golf-ball-sized targets from 50 meters away is truly a rare Monday.
Then on Tuesday you tune in to a man spinning a woman in the air and tossing her for three flips before she sticks the landing—on ice. That Wednesday you watch four men cram into what seems like an enlarged hot-dog bun and race down a menacing mile-long track traveling at speeds topping 150 kilometers per hour (93 mph). Suddenly your weeknights are entertaining. By Thursday your glued to your TV, wondering if Apollo Anton Ohno will win another medal in a graceful yet powerful short track speed skating contest. Then to cap it off, on Friday your stuck wondering how in the world the 5’8’’, 154 lb. Shaun “The Flying Red Tomato” White landed that last Double McTwist 1260 to seal another gold medal.
Saturday rolls around and your shoulders ache from watching (and half laughing) at curling. On Sunday, figure skating drama rules the sports world and whether or not you want to admit it, you love to watch it. There is something intangibly thrilling about the Winter Olympic games that makes them something that should be looked forward to, not passed by like some mundane new reality show.
Sadly, another four years will have to come and go before the winter games appear again in Sochi, Russia—the first time that the Russian Federation will host the Olympics since the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, just four years before the memorable “Miracle on Ice” took place on Lake Placid in New York. So you may have been someone who just loved watching the fast-paced and snowy winter games, or you may prefer the summer games (taking place in London in 2012), but regardless of which games tickle your fancy one undeniable truth lingers—the Olympics are consistently captivating and are a constant source of amusement each and every two years they temporarily grace our televisions.
In the coming years, I hope that spectators will retain their craze for the historic games and build on a storied tradition of athletic competitions that unite countries and all of humanity for however brief a period of time.
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