So the Winter Olympics have ended once more. It was special to be living in the host country, but I guess it didn't make much difference in my overall Olympic experience.
When I first heard about Canada's "Own the Podium" initiative, I was skeptical about Canada's chances of winning the most medals. Canada has a relatively low population, and no matter how much money we pump into our Olympic program, we can't buy talented athletes. The USA consistently dominates Olympic medal counts, and would be very tough to beat.
So during the Olympics when criticism of "Own the Podium" got more vocal, I don't think my opinion changed much. The Canadian athletes weren't doing worse than I'd expected. Yes, I'd hoped we could win the most medals and I figured we would do better than in most Olympics, but winning the most medals always seemed unlikely.
Then Canada won the most gold medals of any country. Not only that, we won more gold medals than any country ever has in the Winter Olympics. That surprised me. When you consider how Canada didn't win any gold medals the last time we hosted the Winter Olympics (and the time we hosted the Summer Olympics for that matter), this is an even bigger accomplishment.
Congratulations to all of our athletes, whether you won gold, silver, bronze, or a participant ribbon. (Or do they give out participant ribbons in the Olympics?)
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Olympics and human rights
Near the start of the Olympics I saw a blog (it was on the Persecuted Church Weblog, but after a quick skim, I can't find the specific post) where the writer said if these Olympics become a train wreck, it might force some serious changes in the Chinese government, and maybe they'd show more respect for human rights. It sounded like he hoped for problems.
But the Beijing Olympics were a resounding success. Right after they ended, I read an Edmonton Journal article, which said, "Many China watchers feared that if the Olympics went badly for China, if terrorism or massive demonstrations grabbed the headlines, the country might climb back into its shell of paranoia and distrust. Successful Games, they argued, would give the leadership confidence to continue and expand the policy of openness it is cautiously embarked upon."
For the sake of everyone oppressed in China, I hope this Journal article was right. And if we look back at history, it seems like democracy and human rights tend to develop best gradually. I certainly don't want to hold back improvements, but it seems like when things change very fast, some of the oppressed become the oppressors, or society gets unstable and violent.
But the Beijing Olympics were a resounding success. Right after they ended, I read an Edmonton Journal article, which said, "Many China watchers feared that if the Olympics went badly for China, if terrorism or massive demonstrations grabbed the headlines, the country might climb back into its shell of paranoia and distrust. Successful Games, they argued, would give the leadership confidence to continue and expand the policy of openness it is cautiously embarked upon."
For the sake of everyone oppressed in China, I hope this Journal article was right. And if we look back at history, it seems like democracy and human rights tend to develop best gradually. I certainly don't want to hold back improvements, but it seems like when things change very fast, some of the oppressed become the oppressors, or society gets unstable and violent.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Olympics
The Olympics are over again. This is the most that I've watched the Olympics in years. For the first time in a long time I wasn't in school during the Olympics. Yes, I was even in school during the summer of 2004. (According to Wikipedia, those Olympics ran from August 13 to 29, so I guess my exams probably ended during that period. But then I was preparing for four months in Colorado, so I probably didn't see a lot of the games.)
I didn't sit down for hours at a time every day to watch the games, but I usually watched during breakfast and supper anyway, cutting into my normal newspaper reading time. I got to see plenty of sports that I almost never pay attention to, like swimming, diving, running, rowing, and the list goes on. I learned about a few of their athletes too.
Several years ago, I remember seeing an article saying they should stop having the Olympics. The writer thought they're too big and they've become corrupt (this was when the bribery scandal was going on). He pointed out that almost every major sport has its own world championships too.
But my experience this month is one reason why I want the Olympics to continue. As I said, I paid attention to sports and learned about athletes that I wouldn't see otherwise. Sure, we'd all pay a bit more attention to those other world championships if there were no Olympics, but not the way we watch the Olympics. Plus, those other championships are just too many, too often. When it's just two weeks every two years, it's not so hard to put some parts of life on hold to watch the Olympics.
Yes, they need to deal with their corruption, and yes, it probably is too big. But I don't think you need to cancel the whole event to fix these problems.
I didn't sit down for hours at a time every day to watch the games, but I usually watched during breakfast and supper anyway, cutting into my normal newspaper reading time. I got to see plenty of sports that I almost never pay attention to, like swimming, diving, running, rowing, and the list goes on. I learned about a few of their athletes too.
Several years ago, I remember seeing an article saying they should stop having the Olympics. The writer thought they're too big and they've become corrupt (this was when the bribery scandal was going on). He pointed out that almost every major sport has its own world championships too.
But my experience this month is one reason why I want the Olympics to continue. As I said, I paid attention to sports and learned about athletes that I wouldn't see otherwise. Sure, we'd all pay a bit more attention to those other world championships if there were no Olympics, but not the way we watch the Olympics. Plus, those other championships are just too many, too often. When it's just two weeks every two years, it's not so hard to put some parts of life on hold to watch the Olympics.
Yes, they need to deal with their corruption, and yes, it probably is too big. But I don't think you need to cancel the whole event to fix these problems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
