When to Wear Your Olympic Medal
You spend half of your life getting banged around from pillar to post but you won an Olympic Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal. For every second of your event you spent months or years of having sore muscles and injury pain. You risked your life flying through the air in an unnatural way. You froze your butt off on the ice or snow-covered slopes. You ran a zillion miles and jumped and shot and curled and danced and did what you had to do to win.
Armchair Olympian
I am not a die-hard sports enthusiast, but confess I enjoyed watching the winter Olympics held in Turino Italy. It was nice to watch something positive and motivational for a change and to delight in some truly amazing and generous acts. I find the wide variety of sports showcased fascinating, proving there is a lot one can do in cold climates of winter! Consider the spectrum of sports. There are the many varieties of skiing.
The Olympic Games - A Brief (And Bizarre) History
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of modern-day Olympics. With so much drama, so much romance, so much pizzazz, it is hard to imagine this world-wide spectacle being anything less than perfect. But you don't have to dig too deeply to discover a humble and oft-times peculiar origin. Truly, it has taken several decades of Hollywood magic to produce the polished sports event we take for granted today.
Finding Accommodation for the Olympics
Getting top quality accommodation in a major ski resort is a challenge at the best of times. During the Olympics the problem is magnified many times. The Olympics is a period when demand exceeds supply by a considerable margin, and so accommodation providers, normally in a cut-throat business, have the luxury of competing offers for their wares. What happens to prices during the Olympics? Accommodation providers in other Olympic venues have reported that prices averaged around a 120% premium on the prevailing normal price for that time of year, but this average spanned a very wide range.
These Unforgettable Olympic Games
If the day begins with resistance to something, it is hard to make the best of it. Resistance suggests splitting. At the moment we are dissatisfied, withered and wilt, we are depressed, have no integrity of energy. There is nothing inside us to make us go to work. We screw up our last strength, and start off to work like a shabby crumpled lorry - reluctant, totally collapsed, wasting and losing our energy.
White Athletes Dominate Winter Olympics, So What?
Everyone has an opinion on the Winter Olympics. Some people are interested and some could care less. Some people think the Olympics has peaked years ago and is just another example of "sports saturation." These are all normal comments and are expected. However, the mention of race with these games is certainly not normal. The focus on black speed-skater Shani Davis is somewhat expected although getting tiresome.
The Olympic Games Were Not Always So Friendly
The modern Olympics we see are often held up as a continuation of the first games. While the basic idea of sporting events is common to both, there is much that is different. The original Olympics were actually only one part of four games held during the year. The others were the Nemean, Isthmian and Pythian Games. The Olympics, however, were by far the most famous. These games derived their name from Olympia, were they were held.
Olympic History Tidbits: The Marriage of Two Great Athletes
If you are envious of great athletes, you'll be interested in the true story of the marriage of two great Olympic athletes. The dominant athlete of the 1968 Olympics was Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia who won 4 gold and two silver medal in gymnastics. Right after the closing Olympic ceremony in 1968, she married Joseph Odlizil, the 1964 Olympic silver medalist from Czechoslovakia in the 1500 meters.
Ontario Sports & Olympic Youth Academy (OOYA) Shape Our Leaders Beyond the 2010 Winter Olympics
Leadership in our Canadian youth is pervasive and active. As a volunteer, I was witness and observer to an extraordinary 4-day conference hosted by the University of Ottawa (May 11-14). This year's theme was "Making a Difference". The delegates to this 2006 Ontario Olympic Youth Academy, were fifteen Ontario students representing their high schools. These students confirmed that our youth will bring a new order of leadership to this country, their province and their communities.
Winter Olympics Teaching Tips
Do you recognize the names Giant Slalom, Luge, and Curling? Yes? Then you must be ready for the Winter Olympics! Here are a few suggestions to make them more meaningful to your children: 1. Let each child or small group of children choose an event to research. The events may be their favorites or ones they would like to know more about. (NOTE: A list of Winter Olympic events is at the end of this article.