This probably isn't the last post of Katie2012, I have a couple started that I want to finish, but it's kind of important if you want to understand how this suddenly became a sports blog. I said at the beginning how much I love the Olympics because of the sports but it is always at the end that remember other reasons. One of my least favorite traits is that I can be terribly emotional and along with that I can be terribly sentimental. As long as I can remember I watched the Olympics, it was just what we did as a family, and whenever they end I'm just a little sad because it's four years to the next and who knows what will happen in those years. I can tear up watching the damn highlight show as I wait to watch the closing ceremonies I already watched live online.
Maybe deep down I'm just a big, well tall, kid again.
Of course there are other less emotional reasons too. For two weeks the news in it's many forms is dominated but sports and smiling faces making it easy to get lost in the games and barely notice that Willard picked wingnut Ryan as his running mate. It sounds corny but the nations of the world compete and no blood is shed, unless you happened to watch the field hockey gold medal game. Athletes from around the globe laugh, cry, and share their dreams as we at home argue, clap, yell, stomp our feet, and throw an occasional remote at the wall. The world just seems a much better place when medal counts are more important than body counts.
Than the flame is extinguished, the spirit fades, and the realization comes that the world really hasn't changed at all. Or has it?
In London ten openly gay athletes won medals, including seven gold, so if gay were a country it would have come in 31st in the final medal standings. They included Seimone Augustus of the U.S. women's basketball team, Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women's soccer team, whose coach Pia Sundhage is also gay, and English rider Carl Hester with gold medals. Judith Arndt, a German cyclist, won a silver medal while Edward Gal of the Netherlands and Lisa raymond of the U.S. won bronze medals. I'm especially prould of Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, and Maartje Paumen of the gold medal winning field hockey team from the Netherlands.
Maybe the world did change if ever so slightly. Still, it is changing.
Maybe deep down I'm just a big, well tall, kid again.
Of course there are other less emotional reasons too. For two weeks the news in it's many forms is dominated but sports and smiling faces making it easy to get lost in the games and barely notice that Willard picked wingnut Ryan as his running mate. It sounds corny but the nations of the world compete and no blood is shed, unless you happened to watch the field hockey gold medal game. Athletes from around the globe laugh, cry, and share their dreams as we at home argue, clap, yell, stomp our feet, and throw an occasional remote at the wall. The world just seems a much better place when medal counts are more important than body counts.
Than the flame is extinguished, the spirit fades, and the realization comes that the world really hasn't changed at all. Or has it?
In London ten openly gay athletes won medals, including seven gold, so if gay were a country it would have come in 31st in the final medal standings. They included Seimone Augustus of the U.S. women's basketball team, Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women's soccer team, whose coach Pia Sundhage is also gay, and English rider Carl Hester with gold medals. Judith Arndt, a German cyclist, won a silver medal while Edward Gal of the Netherlands and Lisa raymond of the U.S. won bronze medals. I'm especially prould of Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, and Maartje Paumen of the gold medal winning field hockey team from the Netherlands.
Maybe the world did change if ever so slightly. Still, it is changing.
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