Saturday, August 7, 2021

Olympics are over ….. almost

I’m not going to lie…… I’m exhausted it was a long arse week that included about a day of Overtime and a day out of town delivering some conference items to another office that greatly cut into my Olympic watching time. I still managed a very impressive watch list for those days but the Olympic exhaustion due to the time zone change hit me hard yesterday. While in a meeting with my boss I could feel myself sinking and at one point he said “Marcy are you ok?” I immediately perked up and said yeah why. His response “I think your battery just ran out. Go home!” So I did. I then fell asleep on the couch for about 2 hours. Woke up feeling just awful, as I typically do after a nap – I suck at nap taking apparently. However it was a recharge I guess I needed to watch the Platform Diving semis, and some indoor volleyball, the end of a marathon, and some track and field during the night time coverage of the events.

The best thing about this Olympics being postponed, yes I found something positive about waiting a year …. Is that now the next Olympic games in Paris, France are even closer. . Right now the games are scheduled for July 26 – August 11 in 2024.3 years to prepare instead of 4 …. So yeah that’s a good thing, well for me not the athletes.

Random closing thoughts on this Olympic Cycle:

1.       Americans are spoiled – a medal is a medal. Sure no one grows up waiting a bronze medal but damn a Bronze is still pretty freaking fantastic. It’s time we stop that if it’s not a Gold it doesn’t matter mentality. Top 3 in the world is still awesome, top 2 is good and the top of the heap with that Gold is Amazing when you think about what all it took to get to these milestones, even without a global Pandemic, is what should be celebrated. Americans please do better.

2.       Mental Health – Don’t get me wrong … I’m glad that athlete’s are able to express themselves and are able to have their voices be heard when it matters and I hope that one day they won’t even be required to make a statement after something happens or they feel the need to pull out of an event. I do wonder if the “stars” of these sports weren’t the ones doing it would it be hitting in the same manner. If say the girl who was say 15th in the world vs #1 was having the same conversation would we be listening. Sadly I think the answer is no. So let’s keep working on this guys.  

3.       Lots of first-time winners – Usually first time Olympians are there for the experience. They often get overwhelmed by the pressure and the just overall feeling of the moment they are in and yet this year there have been a lot more first-time winners than we have seen in past Olympics. So kids are either being better trained or are just getting lucky or they are just cocky and thus the moment isn’t as overwhelming. I personally think the pressure isn’t as high cause I mean most people do two maybe 3 rounds of Olympic games (depending on the sport) and so these “younger kids” know this will not be their only opportunity to medal and stay more relaxed.

4.       GOAT – The term “G.O.A.T” is way overused. There are athletes that deserve that recognition and I’d argue that even getting to the Olympics means you are the best of the best for your Country but not every athlete can be the “greatest of all time” cause if they are then they cancel one another out. They can be the greatest of their sport … maybe.. greatest for that moment in time, but years ago people would have said say Shannon Miller gets that distinction or Usain Bolt but their records are being shattered left and right. I just feel like we need to calm down with that distinction just a little bit and enjoy the athletes for what they are bringing to their individual sports without adding that moniker to their shoulders. Just saying.

5.       Sports I missed – I have watched more Soccer this year than in years past …. Not really sure why other than it seemed for a while that every time I turned on my various devices it was on my TV. That being said there are sports that I LOVE that I missed this year. Take Rhythmic Gymnastics and Trampoline Gymnastics, two really awesome sports to follow and watch but that never made it to my eyeballs this year and that makes me sad. I also didn’t get to watch the new Surfing competition but I’m not too chuffed about that. Sport Climbing I caught a glimpse of while they did a news around the games update but didn’t really watch the competition. Sailing, Golf, and Athletics were the same way but again I wasn’t too sad about missing these. Overall tho I saw more than I missed so I’m happy with my 2020/2021 Olympic experience.

 Time to catch up on my sleep. . Next up Dragon Con … then the Paralympic games which are often more compelling than the actual games to me. Then next year the Winter Games are right around the corner (Feb 2022) and Invictus will be back !

 

Marcy

No comments:

Post a Comment