I am an Olympics junkie. There. I no longer have to hide my shame about being an addict. For as long as there have been Olympics televised I have been in front of a t.v. screen as often as possible. When I had my own businesses, custom picture framing shops, I always had a television in my work room and it was on so anytime I was working on cutting mats or making frames I could keep an eye on what was going on with "The Games".
While my overall favorites are the winter sports and games I'm just as bad about being glued to the tube for the summer games. Realistically I know more about the summer sports than the winter sports as I have played or been exposed to those sports all my life. The closest I've ever gotten to the winter sports are watching them on t.v. except for ice skating one time in my life. We have maybe one or two 'good' snows a winter in Oklahoma so I've never skied and snowboarding wasn't even a figment of anyone's imagination when I first fell in love with winter sports. I have dreamed of ski jumping which is kind of crazy since I've never even been on a pair of skis. I love the idea of the flight after the take off. Ski jumping would have to be my favorite winter sport to watch.
In the summer games I have played tennis, table tennis, basketball, volley ball (not beach volleyball... no beaches in Oklahoma), swimming, springboard diving, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, but I am totally fascinated with a summer sport I've never done...rowing, specifically sculling. There is, to me, such a beauty in that sport, whether it be singles, doubles, or the big boats of eight. The overhead shots of the rowers pulling the boats through the water makes me think of the lightness of waterbugs skittering delicately across the surface of the water.
I always thought sculling would just be a dream, like ski jumping, that I would only realize while playing in my mind but there is now, in Oklahoma City, a world class rowing center that was built as part of the downtown revitalization program. There are Olympic class rowers in London now that have trained in Okla. City and there have been competitive races on the Oklahoma River, a mile long waterway developed for rowing. I haven't yet been to the aquatic center but hopefully this fall I can go and, perhaps, realize this one dream.
GO USA!
