olympic light show 2Vancouver swathed in night light show. Photo courtesy of Chrissy Graham.

Welcome to Sunday Morn Musings.  This is my weekly free fall – writing about whatever it is that occupies the mind on a Sunday Morn.  The idea of a “no topic” posting is the stepchild to a blog I used to write:  Four O’Clock Thursdays which is still up there if you want to check it out – more likely, I will republish some of those posts here over time.  On Sunday Morn Musings the topic may be about blogging but just as likely it may not.

I am watching these Olympics with greater interest than I ever have in the past – I mean, hey!  We’re the hosts. As I watch the different events I have come to the conclusion that the world athletes, just like the rich, are definitely different from you and me but maybe not quite in the obvious ways.

Of the events that I have watched some of the most iconic moments to me are the images of the athletes when they’ve nailed it.  Watching Alexandre Bilodeau slicing through the moguls to Canada’s first gold on home turf was special but what I really got a kick out of is the way mogulists’ (is there such a word?  No? ok. There is one now) knees are well so bobbly, like those bobble dolls that people put on their car dashboards.  So mogulists are different from you and me because they got knees that are different from yours and mine and when not shushing down mountains they hold secret day jobs riding in cars perched on dashboards and pretending they are dolls.

shawn white Is that a bird?  Is it Superman? NO!  It’s Shaun White!

I have also developed a new level of respect for the sport of snowboarding.  Yay for Maelle Ricker as she clearly led the pack to her gold, but the one that had my eyeballs glued to the screen was Shaun White.  I had no idea that a human could defy gravity to that extent.  Shaun’s snowboarding specialty is in the halfpipe.  If you haven’t seen halfpipe snowboarding take a look at this video  Shaun White Vs The World – Olympic Halfpipe Countdown

Being at the top of his game, Shaun pulled  in a cool $8M in sponsorships  last year.  Red Bull, one of his sponsors, built a private Halfpipe run for him up on the mountains in Colorado – the only way to get there is by helicopter.  That makes Shaun both rich and a world athlete!  Up on two counts.   Halfpipe Olympians are different from you and me because they have nerves of steel and are the secret love children of Superman!

I just don’t get the whole bobsleigh, luge and skeleton sport thing.  It is a sport that is played – one usually “plays” sports, but I use the word loosely with the greatest of literary license I am sure – on a spiraling  refrigerated track with curves that would make a grand prix driver blanche with fear,  from mountain top to bottom.

At least the bobsleigh riders are sitting in a sled with sides and the driver can manipulate the runners but in lugerluge and skeleton there is precious little between the body and the track except a thin slice of fiberglass with fixed handles – luge the athlete goes feet first, skeleton is head first.

Bravery?  With all due respect to the athletes how about nuts?  Speeds get up to 160 KPH – that’s a hundred miles an hour!  On nothing but a slice of fiberglass!  And they steer with their feet or shoulders!  These guys and gals are just different.  Period!  It’s not about nerves of steel, its more like a brain disconnect with body and reality.  Yup! Truly,  they aliens from another world so of course they are different from you and me!

Of course I enjoy watching all the typical winter sports especially the downhill racing and the figure and speed skating.  But I have to tell you, the three I just wrote about held me in an absolute trance.

To Your Own Difference!

Valentina