I almost missed it this year. The Winter Olympics. They came and went without a lot of fanfare. Or maybe there was fanfare, but I was on the wrong channel. I expected lots of social media. Facebook, twitter, instagram, whatever...but...there was very little of that. Strange.I remember when I was a kid...back in the 70's...everyone was talking about the Olympics! Months before they started! Granted, the Summer games were always a bigger draw, but the Winter games also generated a lot of buzz. There was American pride, and everyone was glued to the games to see the USA kick some ass. It was the Cold War all over again. Didn't matter as long as we beat Russia.
So this year, they banned Russia from the games because of doping. (Go figure). The ones they did allow to compete were the Olympic Athletes of Russia or OAR. Nothing they did went into the official record books. As a matter of fact, they had to give couple of medals back after the Russian curling team was busted for doping. THE CURLING TEAM IS DOPING???? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ABOUT?? Gotta pump up before you slide a rock down the ice. And those guys sweeping the ice...they need that extra steroid bump to handle the brooms.....That being said, curling is one of those things that you won't admit to watching, but it draws you in. hooks you...and soon you realize you have watched this thing for the last three hours. It's quite memorizing. More so than the skiing I think. I can watch downhill skiing for about 15 minutes. It's all the same. These guys and girls are so good, they never fall. Snooze. What's on PBS?
I missed most of the opening ceremony, didn't care about the closing ceremony, and in between caught snippets here and there. I did tune in to the figure skating to see Johnny Wier's hair. All kidding aside, there was some amazing skaters this year.
The event I like the most is the skeleton. These guys are shooting downhill on the ice covered bobsled run on what is basically a half sized Flexible Flyer doing about 90 MPH. Arms at their side, no real way to steer....These guys have my total respect. When I was 12 years old, I was on my Flexible Flyer going down dead man's hill. I lost control and hit a tree face first at maybe 10 MPH. I had to drink Thanksgiving dinner through a straw.
So, with the winter Olympics over, life gets back to normal. Which isn't much different than a week ago when it was in full swing. Let's start getting ready for the 2020 Summer games. I'm pumped!!
