Winter Olympics

I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics off and on over the past several days. Living in Texas doesn’t allow much for winter sports, so I’ve never really been too interested. The only winter sport around here is watching the news the morning of an ice storm to see if school is out and… nope, that’s about it.

However this year, I’ve learned more about speed racing and downhill skiing than I probably need to know. It has actually been pretty amazing watching what these people can do. And then you realize the difference between first and second place is often quite small, perhaps a few inches or a fraction of a second.

I’ve mostly enjoyed the speed racing. Watching these people from around the world go around this little bitty circle as fast as they can is amazing. It doesn’t look that hard from my perspective on the couch in my living room, but I’m sure it’s much harder than it looks. I like when the commentators explain the difference in the skates or the history of the sport or give us glimpses into the passions of the various countries competing.

Then, last night we watched a little of the snowboarding half-pipe something or other. I couldn’t get past the fact that these guys were wearing plaid shirts and distressed jeans. It was apparently the official uniform for the American team.  I was shocked.

I can understand that this may be the normal attire for these living-on-the-edge-snowboarders, but come on. Shouldn’t their gear be made by Nike? They looked like they just walked in off the street. They looked like they overslept and didn’t have time to get ready. They looked like they were about to commit a drive-by shooting!

Their uniform surprisingly didn’t sway the judges. They did some pretty amazing stunts and won the gold medal. So, who am I to judge? Especially when you take into consideration the fact that I’ve never actually seen a snowboard in real life, much less an Olympic snowboarding event.

I guess this isn’t Project Runway.