Andy

Sometimes It's the Little Things

After a week of itching and grunge, I was finally allowed to take a shower today. It was sweet I tell you. I was allergic to the material in the padding I was wearing so it might be a while for the hives to go away, but now I can finally return to a semblance of my wake-up routine that helps me get through days more like a regular human.

The Olympics are on more today as well after a week of rather poor NBC coverage. I was able to listen to and then watch the end of a really exciting biathlon finish during my morning routine, and the US men's hockey team is now embroiled in a fast-paced showdown with the Slovakian team. I don't know what's coming up later this evening, but I bet it'll be good too. I just love the Winter Olympics. For some reason I think I enjoy a larger section of the events, possibly because they are slightly more skill-based overall than in the summer games. I will admit that men's figure skating kind of weirds me out a little bit, but I really enjoy the many skiing events, the hockey, curling (who knew?), and even ice-dancing among others.

What impresses me most is the razor-thin margin for error in any top level competition, both for defining success with outright failure and for the differences in times between first and last place in a lot of the racing events. Take downhill skiing for instance. The athletes have to ride the line between wiping out on each and every turn in order to be competitive at all. Just watch their skis shaking, almost out of contact with the surface of the snow and you'll see what I mean. If a person bites too hard into the turns he or she can guarantee a safe run... at the cost of finishing last. That competitive risk, ever greater and more finely tuned as the skill level increases, resonates with me right to my core and is what makes athletics, and indeed competitions of most any kind, great and important as a part of human culture.

It doesn't hurt that most of the competitors are regular folks either.