Posted on 02/24/2002 2:29:17 PM PST by Utah Girl
Little things that make up lasting Olympic memories
The Olympics are too big to put into one box, so we divide them into bite-size pieces.In the end, there is no way to remember complete events, the sequential results, even what day they occurred. The names get fuzzier with each memory stored on top of the next one.
For millions of people, the Olympics were what NBC brought to them. They were up close, sometimes in slow-motion, spliced into digestible nuggets with a backdrop of endless analysis. The lasting images may be of Sarah Hughes' squeal, or Apolo Ohno's fall, maybe Jimmy Shea's photograph of his grandfather. Maybe it's of Bob Costas in an easy chair.
I'm only assuming he was in an easy chair, probably near a fireplace. I never saw NBC's coverage. The one time I saw Bob Costas, he was eating kung pao in a restaurant. I did catch Matt Lauer in a beret once, but that might have been a bad dream.
My images rarely were the same ones everyone else saw. Friends and family would send e-mails, asking about controversies and events that I knew nothing about. I tried to explain that I was too close to the Olympics to have a clue what was going on.
But I know I was there.
I know because I saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir joining the wave at
the Opening Ceremony. I heard helicopters buzzing overhead, impossible not to notice when the music and the cheering stopped. I remember swimming through a crowd of young girls outside the stadium, each in an oversize, fluffy costume and anxiously waiting her worldwide role as an extra in the ceremonies. It was like walking through a giant bag of cotton balls, except they all wanted to high-five.
I remember standing in a crowd of Polish fans, cheering Poland ski jumper and national hero Adam Malysz while getting cell-phone calls from a world away. I got shivers when the crowd erupted over Jonny Moseley's dinner roll -- twice. I got them again when the crowd gave a similar reception to a skier who face-planted among the moguls, hiked back up to retrieve his skis, and finished the race.
I heard tiny Bonnie Blair, standing on her toes to get a better view, rattling a cow bell for every speedskater that passed, American or not. I saw Chris Witty enter the interview room, and was surprised that an Olympic champion and world-record holder could look so much like a bookstore clerk. I saw teammate Jennifer Rodriguez answering questions about her bronze medal from the seat of an exercise bike she was riding.
I smelled countless sportswriters jammed onto slow-moving buses. I heard countless languages spoken at every turn. I saw the sun come up in the Wasatch Mountains, more times than was necessary to appreciate. I tasted too many hot dogs, some of them too many times.
I heard Swiss curling fans burst into quick, incomprehensible chants. I saw Lech Walesa sitting in the warm sunshine, cheering a countryman. I saw one of the Games' greatest champions cry into his hands at the mention of his dead father. I saw an unknown luger fall short of a medal and embrace a dying father.
I saw one women's hockey team cry as the other threw its equipment in the air, one stick landing several rows into the crowd. I heard a goalie from Belarus nearly apologize for his team beating Sweden in men's hockey. I felt the noise when the Americans beat the Russians.
I saw a man from Nepal and a man from Cameroon embrace at the cross-country finish line. I saw a luger cry because he just watched his son compete in the same race he had. I heard Kenyan skier Philip Boit politely asking for the cell phone number of his hero, Norwegian cross-country legend Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. And I heard Daehle give it back.
I saw people with no chance of winning basking in the moment. And I was one of them.
Most of them were from Berkeley, CA, when Berkeley was a nice town. They trained there.
Of course, I always like to see the Americans win, but am not so fanatical that I think we should win everything...I like to see all the participating athletes do their best, and regardless of which country they are from, I cant help but be happy for the winners, who tried and won...
But perhaps a few stories stand out for me which make these Olympics even more pleasant....stories of athletes who came and participated, without any hope at all of winning, and yet still gave it their all, because it was a dream...
Stories of that poor womens hockey team, which came to America with shoddy uniforms, and not much more than about 30 or 40 dollars in their pockets, and how the people of SLC when hearing of their plight, went out of their way, to get some souvenirs for these athletes, to show them, that we Americans are big hearted folks, who love to help others...
Or the story of the engineering professor from Thailand, who was his countrys first winter Olympic participant and participated in cross country skiing, and was told if he was lapped, he would be out...well, he was lapped as he expected and was out of the competition, but he was overjoyed at the fact that at least he had tried...
Or the story of the young man from Nepal, who was adopted by a British man, when the Nepaleses boys father had died and the British man honored his pledge to the father, by caring for his son, repaying a debt when this Nepalese sherpa walked three days to get help for the British man injured in a climb in the Himalayas...this young man also was in some sort of cross country skiing and was the first from his native country of Nepal to participate in the winter games..and he came in last place I thinkbut he did not care..his goal was to participate...his adoptive British father said, the proudest moment of his life came, when his son hoisted the Nepalese flag up, and made ready to enter the stadium for the opening ceremonies...
These small stories of lesser known athletes are to me quite precious, for they show that altho these participants knew they would not medal, and knew they would probably garner no attention for themselves, still they wanted to be in the Olympics...
And thank you Utah Girl for all your hard work, and great articles to accompany us all while watching the Olympics...you did a splendid job..
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