Winter Olympics - Faster, More Impressive Than Ever

The excitement of the Olympics greatly was tempered by the tragedy of the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the young 21-year old luger who careened off course at over 88 miles an hour to his death today. What a sickening feeling watching such a young, rising star such as Kumaritashvili die so senselessly. I understand that these Olympic stars are participating in such a high-risk sport, and that these athletes know their risks before getting involved in such a sport, but it seems to me rather ridiculous that the walls around the luge track are low enough that it is even possible for them to fly above the walls as he did. I would think that it would not be very difficult to design a luge, bobsled, etc. course with much higher walls and padding to greatly reduce the risk of injury or death to these athletes. Perhaps they could put up netting beyond the walls to lessen risk of injury even if the participants should jump the track? I am sure there will be discussion and debate for quite some time about this subject and how to remedy the situation.

It is both comforting and nice to see seasoned sports announcers hosting the Olympics such as Bob Costas and Al Michaels. It is a little unusual to see the news broadcasters involved such as Tom Brokaw, but his report about Canada and their long-term friendly relationship with the United States was enlightening. The astonishing beauty of Canada, especially Western Canada near Vancouver, with the awesome combination of sea and towering snow-covered peaks makes me want to go visit! What a great way to promote tourism to Canada!

I was expecting to see the opening ceremonies "Parade of Nations" to begin soon after we tuned in at 7:30pm EST, but NBC managed to fill in more than an hour and a half with filler documentaries, interviews, and commercials in anticipation of the main event. My children and I were really sick of watching all the commercials and interviews while waiting. In fact, some of the stories presented by NBC also seemed much like commercials themselves and seemed a bit artificial in nature. It was difficult to discern commercials from NBC content. The "We are the World" segment was a nice way to promote donations to Haiti, however.

In watching highlights of pre-Olympic training, I was struck by how much faster the skiers, skaters, bobsledders and luge athletes are compared to Winter Olympics when I was growing up. It is also impressive to watch the phenomenal abilities of figure skaters, snowboarders, and downhill skiers; they seem more skilled than ever before. Does anyone else have these impressions?

The opening ceremonies themselves were more hyped up than I like. The initial announcement of all the previous Olympic venues was not even focused on the live event, but a lone skier on a snow covered mountain previously recorded. The stage had the authentic look of Winter, even though I am told that the weather in Vancouver has been unusually warm with very little snow this year. The giant ice-looking totem-poles were a bit on the unusual side - they scared my littlest child.

After almost two hours of waiting, we finally got to see the athletes themselves in the Parade of Nations. The music and smiles of the participants certainly gives one a warm feeling. The youthful enthusiasm is catching and makes one hope for the kind of peace in the world that these games represent!