Bodies in Motion

I have been obsessed with the Olympics. I watched way too much coverage and now that it’s over I am happy so I can return to some other viewing. Every four years I am mesmerized by the feats that these athletes do.

I love the gymnastics. Having done it myself many years ago, I have an appreciation for how difficult it all is, especially that stinking balance beam. And I enjoy watching them doing all those skills, so much so that I hold my breath when all the risky tricks are happening. 

I often find myself watching sports that I never would watch. That’s also a great part about the Olympics – the sheer volume of sports that don’t get much airplay when it’s not Olympics time. I was really interesting in the fencing matches this time around. I don’t understand it at all but I like to observe and see if I can figure out the rules. And water polo, how hard is that sport? I’d probably drown if I had to tread water for that long while trying to get a ball into a goal. 

Swimming and track are fun to watch and easy to understand but of the two, I find swimming far more interesting. I love being in the pool and having learned all those strokes, I know how hard they can be. The track and field stuff is very interesting but because I’m not much of a runner, I don’t appreciate them as much. The 100m races always go by so quickly that I’m afraid to blink and honestly, the triple jump is weird to me. The longer races are breath taking to me because I can’t imagine ever running that long. My body just couldn’t do it. I can barely run to the corner without wanting to vomit. So the will and endurance for the long races always mystifies me. 

I love to watch the team sports although I think the beach volleyball ladies could wear more clothing. I wish there were more opportunities to see volleyball or field hockey because they are fairly easy to understand and interesting to watch. But then again, I am a big fan of soccer, a sport which many people think is super boring.

It was a great couple of weeks and I can’t wait for the Winter Olympics in 2014 to see more exciting tricks and bodily contortions and team sports.