Whew what an exhausting couple of weeks.
I’ve never watched so much television so often so late at night. Damn those Prime time advertising dollars!
After the first week I was spent. I had to take a break and missed some key performances but work and sanity prevailed.
As a Canadian in the USA there were times I would be yelling at the TV set pissed off that we were going to see one more story on Ohno or Voss or Miller or another frigging commercial for 5 dollar Subway sandwiches, and next to nothing on the rest of the world.
I’m as proud and happy for those winning athletes as the next person…it’s just that the coverage was relentless. Relentless in it’s personal stories and build up of all things Team USA.
I heard from a number of American friends who agreed that it was too much US not enough World coverage.
You’d almost think it was the USA Olympics and oh by-the-way here are some other talented countries participating….but…we’ll only supply a snippet to tease you…and now back to Lindsay Jacobellis and her spectacular fall from podium grace…let’s just run another clip of her 2006 grandstanding one more time…Enough already!
The pressure put on these athletes by the media hype was entirely unfair in my opinion. Some of the most private moments of winning or losing with a video camera stuck in their faces for immediate response. UGH. What is it about today’s coverage? Is it the viewers who insist on these invasive tactics? Or has the media become so inured as to disregard respectful distances?
I read on Yahoo News one journalist’s take on Winners and Losers of the 2010 Games. I was happy to read that the Canadian people were considered winners. Proud of our athletes and yet cheering on others in sporting ways. Game on for the Games!
Granted I am a softie but, whenever I heard our anthem O Canada, I could hold back the tears for only so long, had to swallow the lump building in my throat several times, and felt a swelling of intense pride grow and glow in my chest.
But I also took it personally when the Luge track came into question with the unnecessary and untimely death of the Georgian athlete, or the cauldron flame pole didn’t come up properly or there were complaints about the ice surfaces at the Richmond Track. Anything that screamed of negligence or amateurism made me squirm.
Still.. it was incredibly disturbing to read the vitriolic nature of a number of the comments on Yahoo. So many nasty tangents that they threatened to obscure the positive all encompassing tolerant views shared by other readers.
Comments that threatened to displace the real reason the world gets together every four years in the winter… To proudly represent the best of what their country has to offer, to share a love of the sport they have chosen to compete in, to gain much deserved recognition for all their sacrifices and hard earned work leading up to the Games, and, to gain a world view of what is possible. Of what is good in the world.
I mean really…Didn’t you just love how the crowd was yelling USA USA as well as GO CANADA GO at the Men’s Gold final Hockey game?
AND WHAT A GAME!
OMG if we had lost it would have been unbearable. The bruised national psyche would have suffered a major blow! A completely crushed collective!
I know I know…Pain and Pride are inevitable…someone has to win someone has to lose.
However, I’m glad my flag won..partly for the short sweet satisfaction of pulling it off.
Little sister pulled a fast one on her big brother. Both sides skated hard,played well, pushed their limits. It came down to a lucky moment of preparation meeting opportunity ….capped off of course by a small black puck sliding in under the radar.