MikeFew events provide the excitement that the Olympic and Paralympic games have. Every two years, the world witnesses moments of passion and glory, triumph and defeat. You might prefer the summer, or maybe the winter games. Is our opinion that, despite controversy and many agendas, the Olympic games still are able to bring some of the best traits of humanity.
Throughout history, the games have been the stage for world peace, unity, solidarity and progress. Also for racism, terrorism, boycotts and controversy. We’re not defending by any means the huge national and corporate interests that come with them, ignoring or excusing the corruption and shameful cases of abuse, doping, etc. that also often take place. We believe that the spirit of the games should prevail over everything else. That in recent times, only on a few occasions the world willingly gathers to share common goals, like team spirit, fair competition and athletic achievement, all in the name of peace.
We had the opportunity to assist at the Vancouver 2010 winter games. The city of Vancouver, British Columbia is one of the most populous on the Canadian west coast. It was recently listed as one of the best quality of life cities in the world, and we had visited it before and several times after. For the winter games, it was a daunting task just to book tickets, and set other arrangements, all which had to be done many months in advance.
When the time finally came, we arrived at a city that was dressed for the games. People from all over the world, crowded restaurants, bars, festive streets, where people with giant national flags paraded while singing and laughing. It was like you could touch the overly loud happiness everywhere! Of course, the not-so appealing aspects were there as well: traffic jams and street closures throughout the city, fully- booked hotels, exorbitant prices on everything, lines for food establishments, restrooms, etc, all these issues lasting for several days. It would be a challenging experience for many, but above all, we still believe that the experience was definitely worth it!
We witnessed two events: A game of Hockey between the countries of Latvia and Slovakia, and a semifinal for Curling involving four nations: Canada, Sweden, China, and the US. Both events were very unique, spaced by a couple of days in between. While watching that fire on the Olympic cauldron, which, as of today, is still located in the heart of Vancouver, just like ancient Greeks did many millennia ago, we also understood the pureness and simplicity of the games. We left grateful for the experience.
Today, the winter games are close to ending in Beijing, China, and not everything is going well. While the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be finally weakening, the threat of war in Europe and world political and financial trouble still looms. To me, it is hard to believe that after so much death and suffering, the world still doesn’t get it! We need more things like the winter games!
