2014 Winter Olympic Games

I've been watching a lot of the Sooty Olympic Games and have enjoyed just about all of it. So far the terrorism the media always talks about, even seems to wish happens, has been absent. The contests themselves have been exciting and many unexpected results (particularly with events skied in the warm snow melting mountains). So today I have a few observations about what I have seen at the Winter Olympics.

I remain happy about the Games because I have not and will not watch either of the two silly, orchestrated, implausibly judged events. That would be figure skating and ice dancing. Though I know little about winter sport events, and  I have only seen snow a few times in my life, and have never participated in any of them. But it is obvious to anyone who watches those two that they are more show events than athletic competition. If an Olympic event was ever a candidate for one of those crazy reality TV shows, ice dancing or figure skating would be the choice. They are the phony side show of the games.

As to the game events as a whole, I prefer them to the summer Olympic Games because there is far less nationalism from the media and fans.  Even the Russian fans are somewhat restrained in their jingoism and actually applaud athletes who perform exceptionally well in defeating their own Russian country men and women. The summer Olympic Games always seem to be a "How many medals did WE win" exercise. It's probably because the winter Games are far less of an attraction and a more educated audience watches than one finds at the summer Olympics.

I find that Alpine Skiing might be the one requiring the most skill. The athletes literally risk their lives, and in the case of the downhill skiers, are on the edge of crashing the entire time they move down the mountain. But then there is the "sport" of curling. That reminds me of a low key shuffleboard game at a drinking party. I wonder why that is even considered an athletic event, much less meriting a spot in an Olympic games.

One thing I learn watching the action is the disparate skill set needed. Every event seems to require the participant have a different skill and each one has a different level of appeal for fans and sponsors. The lug, for instance, is an event few know about, one in which many of the athletes pay their own way, having little or no sponsorship. On the other hand, hockey is populated with NHL millionaires who need not work a second job to raise the money needed to practice and compete. I also notice that some nations specialize in and do extremely well in selected events. Their athletes win most of the medals in those particular sports. The Dutch are dominate in speed skating, the Norwegians in ski jumping, the Americans in those weird acrobatic ski board events, the Germans in the lug and bobsled etc. This can be attributed to cultural reasons. Those nations all love those events and traditionally have a large number of competitors in each. So they excel in them.

I think the winter games are more enjoyable to watch. They are "competition light" in that the rusts are not a life and death ending for the viewers. They also are a novelty in some ways since much of the world never sees the winter conditions that the sports require. We watch because we are surprised or intrigued at what we see and not because it is, in the summer games, a microcosm of war, an us against them scenario. In a word, watching the Winter Olympics is just plain FUN.