Feb 22
Lindsey Vonn/ Olympic Champion/ Downhill Racer/ Rocket On Ice
I am watching her this Saturday Night go down the mountain on snow that is like “cement” according to the commentator. She is three tenths of a second faster than the previous first-place skier. And she screams when she gets to the bottom of the hill.
In the past few days I have seen young women lose control of their skis and hurdle at tremendous speed down the mountain side sometimes going through multiple plastic fences along the way. These are women enduring great physical violence but it is sport. It’s alright we say (although we would reject this treatment just about anywhere else) as we pray they are not seriously hurt. It is difficult to watch because they are so young and beautiful and every instinct we feel is to protect them from this intense physical danger.
So the next skier is faster than Lindsay by about 1.3 tenths of a second. This is also mind-blowing because victory is measured in pieces of time that are so small we can almost not experience them without some type of electronic equipment.
And now there is a commercial break and a skier with lovely eyes floating in space. The music is very addictive and the whole effect is wonderful and totally non-violent. It is the opposite of what we have just seen in the snow with its cutting edges and blinding surface.
A commercial this good is almost a miracle. And now we are back as a skier rips through the snow and is a few hundredths ahead of Lindsey. The silver medal is no more. All of these girls know the time they need to beat and they are tearing into it but the next skier hits a gate and endures a brutal fall. The camera frames Lindsay’s face as she covers her eyes and does not see her tossed down and beaten by the snow. But she is alright.
And this is the way it goes on this Olympic night. Television rarely rises to this level as it delivers to us in high definition the successful runs and brutal falls with close ups of the faces of these young people as it happens in real time.
It has been a week since we watched a young man fly into a metal structure and die here. He was buried today.
It could happen again as they fly down the side of this mountain at ninety miles per hour. We hold our breaths as they risk everything in these brief moments.
Lindsey is a rocket on ice. She is a courageous young woman. They are all courageous.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/vancouver_2010_
Some great photos of the Olympics.
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4 responses so far Blogs or Posts,My Writing
WOW! You have made the font HUGE. lol :d I had to hold down Ctrl key and click the mnius sign key three times on my PC to reduce the size.
You probably won’t appreciate what I have to say but I’m no Olympics fan. I know people who live on the streets and in other terrible living conditions here in this Province where the government cut back benefits to disabled people and changed the qualifications for receiving welfare to require that one needs to prove they have worked in the last two years in order to qualify. I could also go on and on about the federal government that has no tax dollars to provide for the 33% of Canadian children living in poverty, 45% of whom who are living on First nations reserves that lack a single source of “potable” water.
I am ashamed of my governments and their lack of compassion for those who really are in need. I am sick of the hoopla and hype about the presumed courage of our pampered athletes. If there never was another Olympics held anywhere in the world, and all that money that’s expended to invite the well to do to have a 2 week long party in another country every 4 years I would shout ALLELUIA! at the top of my lungs.
timethief´s last blog ..Share Your Blogroll Linking Strategy
Not everybody loves the Olympics for sure. That’s fine. And different points of view are great. So let me just say that some of these athletes endure a lot on the way to the party. I have seen a couple of stories about brain injuries. And the Georgian athlete died after he ran into a steel support structure on a practice run.
Different points of view are hard to find where I live but ours is an unusual community and self inflicted injuries prompted by vain glorious people don’t impress me. But then again, I damn hard to impress.
Thanks for bringing your perspective here. I become so tired of the business oriented spam. I’ve been putting a LOT of comments in the trash lately and plan to continue tightening up on the mindless attempt to advertise and share absolutely nothing at all. So I was happy when you arrived and brought your passionate self with you.
Please come again anytime. And thanks for the “heads up” about hot linking. I’m also thinking about eliminating all my music links for similar reasons.