The Olympics

Why I love the Olympics
Sometimes in sport, as in life, less is more. Something that only comes around once every four years retains is rarity value. Footballers might score goals every week, twice a week even and get paid more in that time than the average Olympian might hope to take home in a year. How easily and cheaply we lavish them with terms like 'hero' and 'star' for the little they do. They don’t sacrifice years of their life to stake everything they have on one moment, one performance.
It is the human stories of the Olympics that are the most compelling. You can see the elation and the agony on the athletes’ faces. The drive and the suffering of those who might have overcome nasty injury or horrendous bad luck. It really is near impossible to meaningfully digest the lengths they go to in solitary and single-minded pursuit of the ultimate goal. And when or if they achieve it, conquering the ultimate summit, their expressions and words betray that their lives will never ever be quite the same again.

The devotion, the hard toil, the precision of well-honed skill, the unwavering self-belief. The epic nature of the competition. The power, the subtlety and the unexpected drama. The painfully fine line between success and failure. The gracious winners and the losers who take defeat manfully on the chin without swearing or harassing the officials. The modesty, humility and wonderful sense of perspective.

The shock, the astonishment and the excruciating twists of excitement. The watery eyes and the swelling chests as they stand proudly on the medal podium while the national anthem pounds away. Sometimes the real tears of relief and joy.

I love the way that the spotlight of attention falls on sports like cycling and rowing, which most people would not normally bother to watch or get excited about. Sportsmen and women motivated by so much more than money, driven on by the glory of achievement. Of course there are the controversies and the cheats, but overall the Olympics have a satisfying sense of sporting purity and open inclusiveness.

Yet perhaps the best thing about the Olympics is that these people are genuine, down-to-earth heroes. Relatively ordinary people who are relatively unknown and under-appreciated trying their absolute best. When interviewed they nearly all speak with refreshing openness and engaging honesty.

So lets pay tribute to those who put in so much hard work and sacrifice to represent their country and make us feel proud and uplifted.
Forget Big Brother show offs, drug-taking minor celebrities or Bentley-driving, under-achieving footballers. These Olympians are the real role models young people can look up to. They are people worth celebrating.