Comments on: Why you should watch the Olympics

By: SwissToni

SwissToni — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:00:33 +0000

I’m a bit late on this, but I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THE OLYMPICS. Yes, it’s great that Britain are doing well, but I would get totally lost in it anyway. I was in raptures at Nicole Cooke’s face as she crossed the finishing line in the women’s road race, and I’m still loving it now, as a younger, harder breed of British athlete is not content to simply finish second. As I have said elsewhere though, the thing I love most about the Olympics is that although winning is important, here above anywhere else, it isn’t everything. The guy who came last in the Triathlon and skipped across the line waving at the crowd has likely done as much training as the guy who won it and made just as many sacrifices. As De Coubertin said, it’s not just about the winning, it’s about the taking part (he said it in french, obviously). Who could forget things like Derek Redmond being helped across the line in Barcelona by his father after his hamstring had gone? Or Ian Thorpe’s backstroke bronze last time out, in an event he knew he couldn’t win, but he entered it anyway, and a multi gold medal winner was overjoyed to win “only” a bronze. Sport is brilliant. Brilliant. It’s the emotions of the winner and the losers that feed that, and I can’t get enough of it. Meanwhile, the Premier League has turned back up and given us yet another reason to be grateful of the Olympics.

By the way, your comment:

“It’s not about sport, it’s about passion, commitment and desire. It’s about despair and pain, about winning, about competing, about focus and drive. Tears, laughter and joy, not medals. It’s about being alive.”

Is brilliant.

From these comments, lots of people aren’t bothered, but I am, and I’m already rooting for Shazane Reed and that Tae Kwando kid to come back and do it all again in 2012.

My favourite sporting moment ever? Pinsent’s coxless 4 winning gold in Athens. I was there! I was there! There were about 8 of us in a line, about 50m from the finish, and in our photos you can see how close they were with the Canadian boat, each one going ahead and falling behind on the stroke. Sensational sport.

By: The Festival, the Olympics and broadband bother - Scottish Roundup

The Festival, the Olympics and broadband bother - Scottish Roundup — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:27:29 +0000

[...] took a while to get into the spirit for the games, but he got there in the end. Gordon McLean is much more enthusiastic about the [...]

By: Olympic Thoughts

Olympic Thoughts — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:05:30 +0000

[...] taking part I’ve been interested. British interest always increases the tension and as Gordon said so well, the BBC add’s to the coverage by framing events so well. But first – that opening [...]

By: K

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:38:19 +0000

also… peloton is a great word… would be word of the week if i could figure out how to worm it into everyday usage…

By: donalda bint

donalda bint — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:08:47 +0000

Ha! I was thinking sumo and Kabbadi when I wrote that! I never understood NFL until I actually attended a game and then it sort of made sense: I had always assumed that they plays they showed where part of a whole bit, continuous game like football – only once I realised that they did actually stop and start ALL THE TIME did something click in my brain…
I also wrote a huge, ranting comment on usability for your other site, which the internet decided to veto and swallow. DAMN!
Kabbadi was ace, perhaps in part due to the way that everything was explained.