The magical Olympics

If people hadn't gotten this yet, I love all things international. That is why I loved watched the Aussie Open, and why I am loving the Olympics. There is just something about people from different countries coming together in a different city once every FOUR years, and it gives people something to look forward to and work toward if you are an athlete. (Pic here courtesy of this site). The Olympics are special.

I have to say that I LOVE the fact that the official name of the Olympics is Torino, and not the English translation (Turin). I mean why do we always have to follow the English translation of things? NBC chose to go with Torino after NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol took a trip to Torino. “Dick was hearing the way the locals were saying Torino, and how it’s so magnificently Italian how it rolls off the tongue,” said Mike McCarley, vice president of communications and marketing for NBC Sports. Quoted from this article. THANK YOU DICK EBERSOL. That article is really good b/c it talks about how some Americans were getting confused over Torino and Turin (what they saw on tv versus the newspaper). Is it that hard?!

Also I found out that some of my fellow Ithaca people (current communications students there) are interning in Torino right now with NBC. How great must that be! If you go to this site, you can click on these students' blogs and photo albums and experiences there. One student said that NBC was very prepared over there with their broadcast center, and they also put up pics of people they met (like PLUSHENKO!!). I'm jealous. : ( They took pics at the Palavela (ice rink), Sestriere (skiing), Bardonecchia (snowboarding), and more. One girl has pics up of the opening ceremonies and her standing in front of the torch, the medal podium for skating, pics of the city, and of athletes' press conferences. Here is her site. What an experience.

As for me, I have loved everything. I love things that I could not do or are not interested in doing, and I wonder how people do them and like them. For instance, snowboard cross. And especially freestyle aerials when the men and women are FIVE stories high twisting and turning and have to make a perfect landing IN THE SNOW. Then there is the bobsled where the people go 80 mph, and of course figure skating. The jumps are amazing, as well as the clean edges in the required spiral sequences (Sasha is great at that). Last night as I was watching Shizuka Arakawa, I was thinking here we are, the gold medal performance. Wow, I was right too. I knew she would win the gold b/c there was just something about Irina and Sasha that night that I saw in their eyes, that they weren't feeling like a champ (whether it was stress, injury, fatigue, I don't know). Don't get me wrong, they were awesome too, but Arakawa was amazing. My favorite outfit of the night: Georgia's Elene Gedevanishvili. Black skates, black leggings, black outfit with gold lines on it. Just nice and bold and dark and pretty. Only 16 and skating in the Olympics. Hum. Fascinating stuff.

Makes me wonder what country I will be watching the 2010 Vancouver Olympics from. For 2014, these cities have bids in: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Borjomi, Georgia; Jaca, Espana (YEA!); PyeongChang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; Sochi, Russia; Sofia, Bulgaria. To see the bid logos and timeline for the selection of the city (which will be done on July 7, 2007 in Guatemala City of all places), see this site. It also has cities that withdrew from the 2014 bid, and potential 2018 bids. Seems so far away.............................................