Saturday, February 13, 2010

Olympics

I am a huge fan of the Olympics. Like HUGE! I had my students write down, "watch opening ceremonies" in their assignment notebook on Thursday!

After the 1992 summer olympics, my mother had to put my sister and I in gymnastics lessons because we turned the living room into a floor exercise arena. There is a crack in our foundation from all of the jumping we did! I wanted soooo bad to be an Olympic gymnast!

After the 1994 winter olympics, my mother had to put my sister and I in figure skating lessons because we wouldn't stop jumping and twirling around the house. There was a horrible ice storm that year and we could literally skate in our backyard. We played out the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding saga over and over with our neighborhood friends. I just knew I was going to be a gold-medal skater!

I never fulfilled any of those dreams. I did make it to a number of National competitions for power tumbling, though. Power tumbling is not gymnastics and is not an Olympic sport. Still, I will sit through every broadcast and cheer my heart out for those who made their dreams come true.

I was sooo disappointed when Chicago lost the 2016 bid. I live close enough to Chicago that my city would have provided practice facilities. You'd see me as the stalker outside! I would have sold valuable belongings to attend just one single event.

My heart goes out to the family and teammates of Nordar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luger that lost his life on Friday morning. How terrible for such an athlete to meet his end just days away from his competition. May his Olympic dream live on!

Can you imagine how excited I was to find that I could add the medal count to my blog!?!?! This is going to be an amazing 2 weeks. My DVR will be backed up with recordings of speed skating, ice hockey, and figure skating.

I'm sure if you listen hard enough you'll hear me chanting "USA! USA! USA!" And, how hot is Apollo Ohno?!?!

1 comment:

  1. hahaha this is so funny because I was very similar. Although I did about every sport known to man for approximately 2 weeks. I loved gymnastics until I found out you didn't get to wear sparkly leotards to every class and you actually had to sit and listen. Loved skating until I found out you don't get to wear the sparkly dress to every lesson and have to listen...notice a pattern. By sport/musical instrument #a billion my mom decided I had commitment issues. Probably true. Luckily dance stuck. But I was so sad to hear about Kumaritashvilli...he was only 21, same age as me. Hit me a bit harder when I heard that. I've always enjoyed the summer olympics more (I'm a Towson, MD girl and have met Michael Phelps a few times...he trains at my colleges pool) but Maybe I will get into the winter scene a bit more this year. Okay longest comment ever award right here!

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