London 2012

We recently put the axe to our cable subscription, thereby saving $500 a year, and one of the questions the cable agent nagged about was didn’t I want to watch the Olympics, at least, and delay the cancellation by a month.  Well, no.  Not really.  But if, as we’ve experienced, there’s a delay in the service actually stopping, then I might actually tune in.  For the tennis, and Clara Hughes.

The Summer Games are supposed to be the big ones, the official ones, where we crown fastest man on the planet, and the traditional Greek Olympian field athletics legacies.  Shot put!  Javelin!  High jump!  Don’t you remember the days in the sand pit?  But me, I was always into spectator sports, and not into athletics. I didn’t care about soccer, really, or baseball, and while I liked gymnastics, it got a bit routine for me.  Ice skating, now, was fun.  It was drama.  And hockey was just the best.  So the winter Olympics became a priority in my mind, while the summer games slipped by.

That changed several years ago.  First, the crop of skaters that I grew up with and revered, and all their rivalries – Elvis Stojko, Michelle Kwan, Ilia Kulik, Tara Lipinski – left.  Skating was huge in the 90s; in the new millenium, not so much.  And I grew out of it.

Second, I missed the last few Olympics.  I was in New Zealand (with no TV) for Vancouver, in Australia (with no TV) for Beijing, and working in Bryn Mawr for Turin – with no TV.  Which more or less put paid to any interest in the Olympics I had, fireworks, opening ceremonies, and drama notwithstanding.

But I figure, as cable disappears from my life, I might as well give it one last hurrah.  I was in France when the IOC awarded the games to London instead of Paris, and believe you me, I was gutted.  However, there are two things drawing me to the Olympics this year.

The first is tennis.  I recently got into it, and it’s fun.  I really want to see what happens with the Murray, Djokovic, and Federer rivalry, and I think it’ll be exciting.   Two, I really want to see what becomes of Clara Hughes.  In case you didn’t know, Clara Hughes is a Canadian speed skater and cyclist, and the only person in the world to win multiple medals two disciplines in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.  I think this is her last time at the Olympics, and I’m eager to see if she’ll make it a good send-off.  And hey, while I’m at it, I might as well catch the opening ceremonies tonight.

Are you tuning into the Olympics?  Do you have a favourite sport?

– Jean AAR