Olympics -- Eddie the Eagle

The real problem with the Olympics is that these elite athletes make difficult things look really easy!!  We were watching the ski jumping the other night and when you see how high the jump is and how far off the ground they are, it is terrifying.  But they fly down that hill and push off hard right at the end of the hill -- and then do what man was never made to do -- fly.

The snowboarders are pretty much the same thing.  They make it look easy.  So they showed this one snowboarder a week or so before the games started and he was going down that ramp thing (like skateboarders do on handrails) and something went horribly wrong.  He fell sideways and his right on his rib cage. 

Years ago, there was this fellow from the UK who went by the nickname, Eddie the Eagle.  Eddie wasn't blessed with the primo talent that the other ski jumpers had, but he gave it his all with gusto.  He had a huge personality and everyone was really taken with Eddie.  His jumps were sloppy and short.  He didn't have good form.  He didn't come even close to winning a thing.  But he did something for me and for the others watching -- he didn't make it look easy.  Now the viewers could respect even more what these amazing people were doing.  And this year we have women!!

This is just me talking here but a good while back, I enjoyed watching the games much more.  Part of it might have been that the competition was less known to me and I was still learning.  Part of it was stellar broadcasting.  The producers of the Olympic coverage did a masterful job of mixing actual competition with film and then with the even more interesting background stories.  If it was a the Russian weightlifter, then someone traveled to his small Russian village and interviewed him and also some of the townsfolk with interpeter close by.  It was great.  By the time it was over, you knew something about another part of the world you'd never see, and you knew something about an athletic that you would never meet.

This year there seems to be some controversy about the torch lighter at the games.  Her name is Irina Rodnina.  When the TV coverage was so excellent, there was a lot said about Irina.  Her partner with whom she had done quite well fell in love with another pairs skater and both pairs split up.  It was reported at that time that the whole thing was pretty nasty.  Rodnina came out triumphant, however, when she was paired with Zaitsev and they ended up beating her former pairs partner in a number of important competitions.  She lived in the US for a while, and is now living in the former USSR and a political representative.  She was always a fierce competitor and a strong, muscled skater, but I never warmed to her for some reason.  I guess she had something on her tweet account that was not flattering to the president and first lady and so much is being made of her being selected to light the torch.  She cites free speech.  Interesting.  WE were the ones with the free speech.

So we'll watch some of the Olympics tonight perhaps, especially the skating if they have some.  I still enjoy that a lot, partly because of the wonderful music. 

Pray for a friend of mine who is in the hospital with a perforated intestine.  She really needs our support.