Obligatory Olympics Post
So just about everyone in the world has been talking about the Olympics and now that they are just about done an dusted I thought I would jump in with a couple of thoughts and anecdotes of my own.
Thought Number One...Was this the Olympics we (to steal a phrase) "had to have"?. Australia is such a sports mad country, and we pride ourselves at excelling at sport. I mean, we have more world champions per capita than any other country.
But maybe, this 'poor' performance (to be honest I wouldn't call it poor at all, to even get to the Olympics is fucking brilliant and not something that just anyone can do) was needed to remind everyone that a) there is more to life than winning, just getting there is an achievement in itself, and b) perhaps people need to get a little perspective when it comes to sport, that it's not the be all and end all and that there is more to life.
Not to take anything away from these people who have dedicated their lives to training hard and competing and trying to be the best, but it's certainly not the most important thing in life to the vast majority of people and there are lots of people out there that are making sacrifices and working hard to help others and are not getting any recognition or medals for it. I don't know, maybe these Olympics should serve as a little reminder of that for some Aussies.
Thought Number Two... How unreal is the trampolining?!? I'd never even realised it was an Olympic sport until this year (who knows, perhaps this was it's first year, anyone know?) and we had Foxtel and there was just so much Olympics on. Dave flicked over one night and it was on and I couldn't believe how scary it looked. They go so high! I would never have the guts to try and jump that high on a trampoline. And what is the injury rate? Surely you'd get pretty banged up if you fell off when you're jumping so high?!?!
I've never been very good at sport, particularly at school, and if you mentioned the word 'running' to me, well, if I could I would have run away from you I would but it would have been more liea slow power walk! Let's just say that running has never been my strong suit. Swimming though? That's another story...
Anecdote Number One... I was always a water baby, from the very first time I went swimming as an itty bitty babe, I loved the water. In Primary School, when I actually went to the swimming carnival, I competed in the backstroke. In Year 3 I came fourth in the 50m Backstroke, in Year 4 I came third in the same event, in Year 5 I came second (are you sensing a theme?) and in Year 6? You guessed it, I finally came first!
Coming first was probably one of the greatest achievements of my life up until then because I just wasn't know for my sporting prowess. Kill it in a spelling bee? You betchya, but sport? Never. I had always wanted to come first so that I could go to the district swimming carnival, even though I knew that I wouldn't have a chance of winning there, I just wanted to be able to say I was good enough to get there.
We had two training sessions before District Carnival and then the big day came and I was so nervous, I nearly chickened out. But I jumped in the pool and I gave it my all and I think I came second last out of about 7 or 8 kids, but I didn't care, I was so excited that I'd done achieved my 12-year-old dream of swimming at District Carnival. I had made it to District and that was good enough for me.
Anecdote Number Two... I won the Cross Country run in Year 12. "But you can't run!" I hear you exclaim...well, no, I can't. However being School Captain it was kind of expected that you at least made the effort to compete, to set a good example for the other students (and it was also an awesome way to get out of half a day of school and gossip with my friends). So myself and the other three captains (we had 4 captains, no prefects) decided we would walk the course and cross the line together. As we got close to the finish line I looked at the other girls and thought "Bugger it, I'm gonna win this thing" and bolted for the finish. The other girls chased after me but because I had taken them by surprise I got a good enough head start and crossed the line in first place. I won the Cross Country! Sure there was really no effort put in on my behalf, but these days I love seeing the looks on peoples face when I tell them I won. They don't need to know it was only a 4 girl race and I only ran about 10 metres to win it! Lol!
So there you go, that's my obligatory Olympics post. So tell me, did you ever win any kind of sporting event when you were growing up? Were you serious about it or was it just for a bit of fun?
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| From Here |
Thought Number One...Was this the Olympics we (to steal a phrase) "had to have"?. Australia is such a sports mad country, and we pride ourselves at excelling at sport. I mean, we have more world champions per capita than any other country.
But maybe, this 'poor' performance (to be honest I wouldn't call it poor at all, to even get to the Olympics is fucking brilliant and not something that just anyone can do) was needed to remind everyone that a) there is more to life than winning, just getting there is an achievement in itself, and b) perhaps people need to get a little perspective when it comes to sport, that it's not the be all and end all and that there is more to life.
Not to take anything away from these people who have dedicated their lives to training hard and competing and trying to be the best, but it's certainly not the most important thing in life to the vast majority of people and there are lots of people out there that are making sacrifices and working hard to help others and are not getting any recognition or medals for it. I don't know, maybe these Olympics should serve as a little reminder of that for some Aussies.
Thought Number Two... How unreal is the trampolining?!? I'd never even realised it was an Olympic sport until this year (who knows, perhaps this was it's first year, anyone know?) and we had Foxtel and there was just so much Olympics on. Dave flicked over one night and it was on and I couldn't believe how scary it looked. They go so high! I would never have the guts to try and jump that high on a trampoline. And what is the injury rate? Surely you'd get pretty banged up if you fell off when you're jumping so high?!?!
I've never been very good at sport, particularly at school, and if you mentioned the word 'running' to me, well, if I could I would have run away from you I would but it would have been more liea slow power walk! Let's just say that running has never been my strong suit. Swimming though? That's another story...
 |
| From Here |
Anecdote Number One... I was always a water baby, from the very first time I went swimming as an itty bitty babe, I loved the water. In Primary School, when I actually went to the swimming carnival, I competed in the backstroke. In Year 3 I came fourth in the 50m Backstroke, in Year 4 I came third in the same event, in Year 5 I came second (are you sensing a theme?) and in Year 6? You guessed it, I finally came first!
Coming first was probably one of the greatest achievements of my life up until then because I just wasn't know for my sporting prowess. Kill it in a spelling bee? You betchya, but sport? Never. I had always wanted to come first so that I could go to the district swimming carnival, even though I knew that I wouldn't have a chance of winning there, I just wanted to be able to say I was good enough to get there.
We had two training sessions before District Carnival and then the big day came and I was so nervous, I nearly chickened out. But I jumped in the pool and I gave it my all and I think I came second last out of about 7 or 8 kids, but I didn't care, I was so excited that I'd done achieved my 12-year-old dream of swimming at District Carnival. I had made it to District and that was good enough for me.
Anecdote Number Two... I won the Cross Country run in Year 12. "But you can't run!" I hear you exclaim...well, no, I can't. However being School Captain it was kind of expected that you at least made the effort to compete, to set a good example for the other students (and it was also an awesome way to get out of half a day of school and gossip with my friends). So myself and the other three captains (we had 4 captains, no prefects) decided we would walk the course and cross the line together. As we got close to the finish line I looked at the other girls and thought "Bugger it, I'm gonna win this thing" and bolted for the finish. The other girls chased after me but because I had taken them by surprise I got a good enough head start and crossed the line in first place. I won the Cross Country! Sure there was really no effort put in on my behalf, but these days I love seeing the looks on peoples face when I tell them I won. They don't need to know it was only a 4 girl race and I only ran about 10 metres to win it! Lol!
So there you go, that's my obligatory Olympics post. So tell me, did you ever win any kind of sporting event when you were growing up? Were you serious about it or was it just for a bit of fun?
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And ITS haven't watched a split second of the Olympics, if not for all the hype I wouldn't know it's on!
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