Oh-Oh-Oh-Olympics!

When Vancouver was announced as the official city for the 2010 Winter Olympics a few years ago, I felt certain that I would be out there in the Pacific Northwest enjoying International festivities. Obviously, I was very, very wrong. Instead, I'm watching NBC jump from event to event, feeling sorry for Vancouver as it seems every day there is another problem. From the devestating to the mundane, it seems as if the Canadian host can't seem to catch a break. Tonight, it's the speed skating track having too many grooves or generally not being smooth enough. I just watched some very angry coach and a very concerned "ice master" (how do you get to be THAT for a living? Awesome) try to complain about/fix the problem.

But man, do I love the Olympics. Yes, they are very political but where else can you have all type of nationalities in one place?! And it be happy?! I love what they stand for: peace, dreams, accomplishments, dedication and can think of few other events that bring people together across borders.

So far my favorite story from the Games has been that of Alexandre Bilodeau, the Canadian who won his country's first gold medal in a home Olympic game. Bilodeau won for Mogul skiing and his run was pretty amazing to watch (I wish I had better adjectives, but I know nothing about this sport). I feel that typically the figure skaters get so much of the press time and it was nice to see a different sport be featured at such length over the past day. Plus, if you haven't seen the video NBC on him and his older brother with cerebral palsy, I encourage you to find it. I have never seen anyone cheer so strongly after any type of game than his brother after his gold-winning run. It's a tear-jerker, for sure.

What does bug me about the Olympic Coverage here in the US though, is NBC's monopoly of the Games. Like I mentioned above, it's too jumpy and it seems as if we never get to see an event from start to finish. Though it's a little better in the winter because there are less sports, I just wish we could see more of everything from start to finish.

I lived in Greece during the 2004 Summer Games and Greece made sure to have a Grecian person in every event (no small accomplishment for a small country). In order to do this, they opened the doors to anyone who had Greek heritage (I think it had to be Mother/Father, Grandmother/Grandfather) and wanted to try out for their teams. To show their support of the Games in their home country, they had every news channel covering the games and made sure to broadcast every Greek participant on air. While also managing to cover the "big" events/matches that were not Greek (USA's men's basketball, for instance) at least part of the time. I just admire that commitment and pride in athletes.

Now, I'll always love the Summer Olympics more than Winter, but since I've been to both Athens and Atlanta (and am contemplating the London Games in some dreams of mine) it's a life-goal to get to a Winter Olympics at some point in my life. I didn't make it to Vancouver because graduate school, new life paths and little money stood in my way...but dare I say bring on Sochi, Russia.

Oh, and my favorite Winter events? Luge, Hockey, Speed Skating, Ice Skating & Ski Jumping.

Who is coming with me? Which games are your favorite?