Olympic Memories

Last week I blogged three times in one week.

Then the 2010 Winter Olympics started. I'm an admitted Olympic junkie.

One week went by. After staying up way too late and getting sucked into many hours of competition I'd figured I should share a bit of why I love the Olympics....

For me, one of the best things about the Olympics is the seeing the proud parents cheering on their children as they chase after a dream that they all sacrificed countless amounts of time and money and actual blood, sweat and tears in order to achieve. I love it and I watch my children play sports and thank God that He chose not to bless me with a child who shows signs of being a future Olympian. I just couldn't handle the stress!!

In an interview with Evan Lysacek's mom she said that she doesn't watch him skate and for his gold medal performance she was in another building watching in a private room iwth a glass of wine! I can barely watch when Jeff Reed of the Steelers is about to kick a game winning field goal so I totally sympathized with her. In fact I think I'd want the whole bottle! ;)

Speaking of Evan Lysackek, tell me that you watched his electrifying performance Thursday night? I forced myself to stay awake until the very end to see if he won gold!

Growing up the Olympic moment that stands out the most to me was when Dan Jansen finally won a gold medal and skated his victory lap holding his daughter Jane, named for his sister who passed away years prior, for whom Dan dedicated the race. Tell me you've seen the commercial...

I remember that we taped the race and the victory celebration afterwards (tears were shed) and I knew it was a moment that I wanted to remember forever and that I never wanted it to get recorded over. The commercial is great, but it's nothing compared to the real thing and I am hoping my mom reads this and feels inspired to rummage through our old VHS tapes in case it turns up! (Ok, I'll admit that I came close to buying the complete coverage of the 1994 games just so I would be able to have coverage of the Dan Jansen race - a bit obsessive I know!)

So far the event my kids have been most interested in has been the snowboarding. Both girls are big fans of Shaun White and were very excited to see him compete....watching it the next day on DVR, not waking them up in the middle of the night for anything! :) We watched both the guys and the girls and while I love the American girls, I was totally captivated by Torah Bright of Australia. She has this beautiful smile and just radiates charisma and spirit. During the opening ceremonies she was the flag holder and the announcers talked about how her parents weren't going to be at the games, that Torah was engaged to be married later on this year and she really wanted them to be at the wedding (which would be in Canada as well) so they were going to wait and make the trip then.

Of course it totally makes sense. You can't miss your daughter's wedding. But as I watched her win gold in snowboard halfpipe I couldn't get them out of my mind. I said to Matt I can't imagine watching your daughter win a gold medal in the Olympics on TV halfway across the world.

I promise you that it's worth it....go read THIS article.

One of those touching Olympic moments, one that I will never have on tape and never see on a Visa commercial since the networks totally missed it, but in a way that makes it all the more special.

Hope you're enjoying the 2010 games!