The Olympics? Heck Yeah I’m Excited!
Posted on February 11th, 2010 in current events
There seems to be a lot of negativity surrounding this year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Perhaps because some people are just disinterested, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we’re paying for them this year. It’s one thing when you just get to watch it on TV from a far away place, but quite another when it’s coming out of your pocket, isn’t it?
Well, not for me. I generally love the Olympics. Or, at least the winter ones. See, the first time I remember the games was the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. And I remember how much fun it was! I had a toque with the logo on it. We bought the glasses from Petro Canada. We watched every event that the CBC aired, every day after dinner. Of course, I was 8 at the time, enrolled in figure skating classes, and wanted to grow up to be Elizabeth Manley. I actually thought that someday I could be one of those girls out on the ice.
Now the games are not some infallible event for me; I wasn’t a big fan of the Beijing Olympics. I had serious concerns about how China was handling it’s hosting responsibilities. So I didn’t watch.
And I get that with every host country, there are going to be issues. The homeless in Vancouver’s Downtown-Eastside (don’t ever go there alone), the lack of snow on Cypress Mountain, the enormous cost of everything.
But that’s not what this is about. Hosting the Olympics is about coming together as a country, it’s about celebrating sport, it’s about showing the world what a great place Canada is.
When the torch came through Guelph, went and stood in the freezing cold at ass o’clock in the morning to see it. And I’m going to watch every darn event I possibly can, and be proud of both the individuals competing, and the ones behind the scenes who made such a monumental event possible.