Olympic Ramblings
Submitted by Boys and Schools Blog
I’m sure I can’t be the only one totally transfixed by the Olympics. I can’t help it. Every four years, I become an avid swimming/beach volleyball/water polo/pole vault fan. I would probably watch the archery competition if they would show it (and if the US had a decent shot at a medal). And yes, I am an unrepentant home-teamer. How could I not be? One of my earliest Olympic memories is of huddling on the floor in a blanket, astounded that my parents hadn’t sent me off to bed, while we all watched the Miracle on Ice. So I don’t subscribe to the let’s-all-rise-above-politics, Kumbayah school of Olympics-watching. I may not actually be shouting “USA, USA” in my living room, but I’m cheering on Team USA nonetheless. (However, I do plead the fifth on whether or not I might have shouted, “Take that, you frogs,” after the incredible come-from-behind win for the US team in the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay.)
One of the reasons that I don’t shy from the political implications of the Olympics is that I think it can be a great teaching tool. At present, I am using it to help my four-year-old grasp basic concepts of nationality and geography, but the Olympics was one way that I first began to understand different political systems. (An especially poignant feature of the Olympics during the Soviet era. For a time, my family had a Czechoslovakian defector living with us who had a special hostility for the USSR and would accuse them of cheating whenever he saw one of their athletes on TV. Even if the poor guy was doing nothing more than stretching or warming up, our friend would still insist that he was thinking about cheating.)
And, of course, for inspiration and motivation, nothing can beat the Olympic stories. Of course, I do wish that they wouldn’t interrupt coverage of the events for said inspirational stories quite so often. But fortunately, it seems that NBC has backed down from the tendency to do heartbreaking personal profiles of every person competing, and is sticking with no more than few moving stories per night. But for those who want to show their sons what it means to work hard and dedicate yourself to accomplishing a dream, it’s hard to find an easier example than the Olympians that are dominating your television coverage right now. Years of hard work and sacrifice in order to have the opportunity to compete for your country–heck, even the NBA players are taking things seriously this time. If your son is going to admire sports heroes, this can be a great opportunity to show him that what is truly admirable isn’t the ability, but the effort and character that goes into honing that talent.
