Being at the Winter Olympics: The Biggest High in the World
It really doesn’t matter how big your flat screen plasma TV is, or how many channels come streaming through in high definition. Any sports fan can tell you there just isn’t anything like being there at the big event. The bigger the stakes and the greater the contest, the more exciting it is to see everything go down in person.
This February, there’s only one place to witness the superhuman feats of the world’s greatest athletes live and in color, and that’s at the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy.
Sure, you can stay home and spend less, even if you run out and pay full price for a wide-screen TV with surround sound that’s bigger than your living room. Is flying to Italy to stand in endless lines for endless hours to see a flash of color as an athlete speeds by really worth the effort? Is spending a year’s wages on beer and pretzels and mass-market souvenirs really that great?
Absolutely. A couch is a couch is a couch, but the sidelines of an actual Olympic event, now that’s a venue. The emotional high you get just standing in the crowd is worth every penny.
Being a spectator at the Winter Olympics is a unique experience, unlike any other on the planet. There really is no other competitive arena quite like it. The Games are steeped in human history, human drama, human exaltation and human defeat – all done on a superhuman level most of us will never duplicate. But at the Olympics, we can get close enough to touch greatness. Or at least see it through binoculars.
The Olympics carries its own heady magic. Just being there gives you a place in history. You were there, you witnessed something worth witnessing, and you will be connected to it forever. The suspense begins to mount even before you arrive.
Getting there is part of the magic. As you pack your bags and check your tickets for the 14th time, you know, or think you know, what the athletes went through just to qualify for the chance to get there. Not just anyone can make a showing at the Olympic Games. These competitions are for the best of the best, and only the best of the best.
And that group is culled not just from the best of high schools across the state, or the best of colleges across the country. The elite are selected from across the globe. And so the Olympics brings the world together in contest and camaraderie. You, as a spectator, are privy to sporting contests bigger and better than anything else going on in the world. That’s exciting stuff.
The Olympics represent the pinnacle of performance, and every single athlete who has earned the right to compete reminds the world that individuals can rise above war, politics and trade policies, that ultimately every man and woman is responsible for their own performance, their drive, and their determination to overcome obstacles and meet their goals. Olympic athletes remind everyone that dreams are attainable, and that no goal is unrealistic if you’re willing to put the blood, sweat and tears into reaching it.
That right there is how and why we feel so connected to the Olympic athletes we support. They carry our awe and admiration, but they also carry our hopes and dreams. From the moment they decide to work their way to the Olympics, they pit themselves against formidable odds. They symbolize to us the truth in following your passion to success. And so we are bound to them emotionally, if not spiritually.
Cheering for an athlete from our country suddenly becomes more important than anything else going on around us. We stand in the open air in freezing weather, or rub shoulders in crowded stadiums, and we shout, we stomp, we scream and clap and pray and scream some more, sending energy, support, and fevered encouragement in waves of noise and emotion directed right at the competitor.
Suddenly, everyone around us is a friend. No matter who they’re cheering for, we get what they’re doing, we get what they’re excited about, we get that they have the same reasons for being there. We understand. And we love it.
As we cheer for our country, wrapped in the colors of our country, waving our flag and singing the anthem in pride and celebration, we feel connected on the deepest level to every other countryman around us.
We cheer for our country, we cheer for the individual athletes from our country, and we find ourselves cheering for underdogs and heroes from other countries who represent that dream or that fight we relate to. Language and geography fall away in the way of this connection, and we get the concept of brotherhood.
Walking through the streets to breakfast or dinner, we hear a familiar accent and turn our heads, smiling and nodding in recognition of a stranger who so obviously shares a bond with us. Conversations start and flow in every line and around every street corner: “How far did you come?” “Which events have you seen?” “Where are you going next?” “Did you see that happen?” Everyone has at least this much in common.
Once you stand on a mountainside waiting for a skier to fly past, bent in two, intent on shaving milliseconds off someone else’s time, those cowbells suddenly make sense. So far from annoying, they pump the crowd into a frenzy as they pound away in the air, slamming in echo to the adrenaline in your veins, peaking in pitch and ferocity as the athletes from your country shoot by. Excitement charges the air with electricity, spilling out of each body and jumping to the next, until the entire crowd is on its feet, on the balls of its feet, bouncing on its feet to see more, to see better, to see it fly by and throw a collective cheer as far and wide as it will go.
Even as we’re overcome by fierce pride or bitter disappointment in the efforts of our beloved athletes, we empathize with the fans in the other part of the stands, the ones who are backing a winner or a loser up against incredible odds. We know how they feel. We reel in amazement and admiration, recognizing without ugliness the prowess and the power behind an incredible feat, giving an athlete his props regardless of his country of origin.
The excitement is so contagious, you find yourself soaking up every sporting event you can, every way you can. What better place to discover your passion for watching toboggan or biathlon trials? Who knew there was a figure skating fan living inside your hockey-loving soul?
The Olympic Games are bigger than us all. They are bigger than the athletes themselves, bigger than the countries they represent and all the politics played among them, and yes, even bigger than the biggest high-definition TV.
A trip to the Olympics is an investment in memories destined to last a lifetime. You just can’t get bigger than that.
