Good riddance, Winter Olympics!

With the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics I can only feel, finally it’s over! This year’s winter games held no excitement, no anticipation and no fanfare except for the personal tragedies of the death of the Georgian luge racer who died during a practice run, the death of the French Canadian figure skater’s mother and the broken pinkie finger US skier Lindsey Vonn suffered in a crash during a race. There used to be a greater sense of national pride for each country and their teams. There used to be a greater focus on athletic ability and training. Now it seems the greatest victory is in who wears the highest-tech race suits or how much state-of-the-art engineering goes into their equipment (skis, snowboards, luges, etc.). Then there’s the debate over which country has the best athletes; is it the United States with the most total medals or Canada with the most gold medals? The Olympics is supposed to be a healthy outlet for countries to fight for superiority but somehow that feeling has been watered down. Everyone seems to be trying to be so politically correct these days that these lines of nationalism have been crossed; a Canadian audience actually chanted, “USA, USA” during a women’s hockey game—that’s unheard of! I think the real winners of the winter Olympics are the sweepers; these are the little kids that get to pick up the flowers, teddy bears & other gifts that are thrown onto the ice. You can see the pure and simple hopes and dreams still in their eyes that haven’t been affected by the commercialism of the Olympics.