But, like my infamous diet plans, those resolutions seem to die and fade away shortly after the games begin. I never have watched the opening ceremonies, so I suppose that is one consolation or another. I must be true to myself.
The events this year has been somewhat more interesting than some of the preceding ones I’ve watched. For example, this is the first year for the snow boarding events such as the half pipe and the down hill something or another. I found both of them fascinating to watch and wonder how these young kids can even practice this stuff without getting their necks broken. Where do they learn to do these things’ Like most parents, I keep worrying about their pants falling off’ that seems to be a lesson in gravity all of it’s own.
Our youngest son, who is now thirty went to school with a guy who is on the American bob sled team’ he didn’t make it to the finals this year for some reason or another. After you see these folks do these incredible feats that got them there in the first place and then get knocked out for one minor reason or another, you wonder how they manage to keep their spirits up and will they return four years from now’ This profession seems to be a very tough one to maintain.
For me, the ice dancing is the hardest to watch. In the individual events if you screw up the only person you have to blame is yourself. In the ice dancing, when you mess up, you take your partner out at the same time. One can only imagine the hours and years they have put into perfecting their routines, only to have their hopes and dreams dashed by a wrong turn or twist of an ankle. Take a look at the faces of the Italian couple who fell on Sunday night and you can see what I mean. It was hard to tell whose fault it was that caused them to fall, but his attitude certainly wasn’t very forgiving to his partner. I’d imagine the rest of their night was very frosty and chilly, even indoors.
I think it makes good sense to inject new events into the games such as the snow boarding ones, but I’d like to suggest a few that the Olympic committee might want to consider in the years to come.
Snow bowling- bowling alleys are slick, ice is slick’ why not combine the two and have a bowling alley set up on an ice rink’ The possibility of the participants sliding past the foul line just gives the event that extra edge of excitement. The reality of the pins freezing to the surface makes skill even more valuable. Should be more interesting to watch than curling.which is about the same as watching paint dry.
Ski jumping could use some jazzing up as well. How about this’ combine the ski jumping with some of the elements of the biathlon’ It’d work this way’ the skier would come down the ramp’ launch themselves off the ramp and then while sailing towards the landing be required to take a rifle and shoot at some targets placed alongside the ramp’ now this would take skill. It would also be interesting to see how the gallery would react to each racer. Think about it. It could catch on quick.
My last suggestion is a little bizarre, but in the days of roller derbies and indoor football, who knows what might turn out to be the newest and greatest sport of all time’ How about NASCAR ice racing’ My concept would be to take an ice covered track, use NASCAR type racing cars, put those spiked, studded tires on them and turn them loose with about 25 other cars just like them at high speeds. Not only would this spice up the racing world but it would make the pits stops much more interesting as well. Let’s see those guys change a spiked tire in ten seconds or less. This could be big back here in the states in the winter time. You heard it first on this column.
As the week continues, I’ll be thinking about ways to improve on these events for the 2010 Olympics when they roll around’stay tuned.