Olympics

I have watched the Olympic Games since I was a wee child. I have loved every second, and this year’s just-completed winter games were no exception. I loved the figure skating (both speed and figure), the hockey, the biathlon (skiing and shooting, who knew?), and the sliding sports.

But the skiing and snowboarding are jaw dropping. And they keep getting more jaw dropping with every Olympics!

Take half-pipe snowboarding. It’s apparently not enough for the snowboarders to slide up and down the course, oh no. They have to do flips and turns and grab their boards and then land on their feet. And they keep upping the ante! A double cork 720 rodeo goofy (I made up these names; I have no idea what any of it entails) is no longer a winning move, oh no. Make it a triple cork 1280 double grab yankee stewpot! I guess the skiers took a look at the snowboarders and said, “Hey this could be just as nuts on skis as it is on snowboards” and voila!

Then there’s slopestyle and moguls, with their jumping on pipes and bouncing down hills on big humps of snow and flipping and corking and the hey, hey hey.

But the one event that made my head explode was the freestyle skiing aerials competition.

Take a look at this.

How in the name of God’s green earth did they come up with that!? Did they look at ski jumping and think, “Nah, that’s too tame for me. Lemme do a ski jump, do a few twists and flips in the air, hurtle 50 feet straight down HEAD FIRST, and then land on my feet. Yeah, that sounds good.”

Oh holy dear sweet Jesus, what?

It’s just batshit crazy to watch, and I loved every second, even though I was scared spitless that one of the skiers would snap their neck or have their legs pop off like a wish bone being broken.

But whew, the only badness was when a skier landed on their butt instead of their feet, but STILL.

Anyway, I loved it all, thrilling victories and agonizing defeats, and I salute every athlete in the world who does them.