The Olympic Games: It’s All About Time

At this moment I am obsessive watching the Winter Olympics. I would consider myself a bit of an Olympic junkie. Summer or Winter, doesn’t matter. Every two years for two weeks in either February or August, my life seems to stop and, to quote Fight Club, everything just seems to have the volume taken down- unless it’s Olympic related. These aren’t people who have decided to take HCG for weight loss to get their bodies in shape; these are people who have worked their entire life to for a chance to win. These people spend every day of their life in constant training for their event. They are in it physically and emotionally. So many sacrifices have been made all in the name of either making the Olympics or winning the gold. This, to me, is what makes the Olympics so incredible. It’s not about getting a new contract; it’s about giving your all and hopefully winning a medal.

One of the things that make the Olympics so incredible to watch is the idea of time. While some might like to watch the judged events like Figure Skating, I love watching events like downhill skiing and speed skating where one one-hundreth of a second can mean the difference between winning and losing. Yes, you heard that right: a hundredth of a second. That’s an amount of time that most of us can’t even comprehend. We deal in minutes and hours, we can’t imagine our entire life coming down to tenths and hundredths of seconds.

Yesterday I was watching a biathlon race where the winner won by four tenths of a second. Considering the fact that it was a 15 kilometer race, we are talking about mere inches separating the gold medalist from the silver medalist. It’s amazing to think that two athletes can stay that close for just over 10 miles.

Things like this make me wonder how this is worth it to the athletes. I’m not talking about the guy who won because I’m sure his life has just been made, no I’m talking about everyone is position 2-50. I’m sure a good majority of the participants are just happy to be there so they are just going for a personal best. But for those who were going for gold I can’t imagine what it would feel like to lose by .4 seconds. How do you sleep at night after something like that? I’m guessing being a world class means you’re as strong mentally as you are physically. That seems to be the only way you could get over that. Well, that, and keeping the faith that in another four years you’ll get your chance again.