I have never had much interest in watching any sports. This year, things began to change. While surfing TV channels in typical male fashion, I happened on CTV’s coverage of the Olympics, when pictures of speed skaters hurtling around a track caught my attention. I paused for a quick look, intending to move on. Something about the skaters grabbed me and the remote dropped into my lap. The fluid graceful motion, the tremendous speed by healthy young bodies gripped me. Okay, I’ll admit it. I chanced on the women’s speed skating and found myself watching beautiful, youthful women.
I should explain why I have little interest in watching sports. As a kid, my lack of coordination disqualified me from all sports. Mother couldn’t afford good skates, so I learned on hand-me-downs that flopped over at the ankles. Running on the sides of the skates, then jumping up on the blades to coast across the frozen pond started me off badly. While in second grade, I tried hockey using better equipment, but with disastrous results. When a puck hit me in the temple, laying me out on the ice, my hockey career ended. Hey, it’s a dangerous game.
Years later I tried my hand at baseball, but only because the school team lacked a player and reluctantly took me along. Amazingly, I hit a homer that won the game. I retired, knowing that I could never again measure up to my new-found fame.
My family in Alberta became famous as breeders and owners of race horses. Fortunately, I weighed too much to ride as a jockey. It had terrified me that my half-brother might ask and I’d have to admit I often fell off horses at a walk. My life as an equestrian never got off the ground; fear alone stopped me from mounting a race horse.
Back to the Olympics. Do we throw away our money when we support them? Should we spend government funds on a group of elite athletes? Should we take the advice of some demonstrators, opt out and invest in housing for the homeless? Others suggest that we should use all that money for paying down the national debt. If ever I supported those arguments, it certainly will not happen again.
When I watched the glow of satisfaction on athletes’ faces, I got the message. These young Olympians don’t train to become good; they train to become the best. With that attitude as a life philosophy they will excel in everything else they do in later life. None of those marvellous young people who have mastered the physical and mental skills of competing under pressure will ever require subsidized housing. Indeed what they have learned will propel them to success in every level in life while they drag others along with them.
Those who win medals will earn so much from endorsements and other contracts that they will eventually return in taxes all the government has invested in the Olympic program. This old sports dropout has changed his mind. Training has programmed those young men and women to win; we need more like them.
In case you wondered, I also watched some of the men’s events.