What I learnt from the Olympics

I adore the Winter Olympics, the skill and grace of the skiiers and boarders defies description - at least my clumsy attempt at describing their aerial highjinks. For two weeks I become an expert on sports I'd never heard about.

There were three high lights for me. The first, as I settled down to watch the Men's Final of the Halfpipe as my lunchtime break, while riding the exercise bike, an acquaintance in the US tagged me to see if I was watching it live. With the eleven thousand kilometres between us vanishing in real time, we facebooked our commentary of what we were seeing and if we thought the scores were fair. It was as if we were in the same living room watching the events unfold. What could have been a lonely experience for two people was shared. The world is indeed smaller than ever before, and that gives me hope for humanity. Perhaps we can see a little more how what we do impacts others, and how we can help those around us, after all, they may be only a few clicks away.

The second was from a tweet by Daniel Dae Kim, on the South Korean Women's short track relay. Early in their race, one of the women fell but the team kept pushing and made it from behind to break a record and nab a spot in the final - which they later won. Kim's tweet was merely "This is why you never give up. This is why it's not how you start, but how you finish." If you are stumbling or feeling out of your depth, it doesn't mean defeat is inevitable. Perhaps you need to make a few changes, or perhaps you just need to persevere. When the going gets tough, just remember, it's not how you start but how you finish!

Lastly, I learnt that if the country is not a traditional 'winter sports' country, then an athlete might decide to take up a sport the year before and go to the Olympics. So I'm deciding what won't be too scary or dangerous, as I'm too old to break bones and then I'll hit you all for funding to send me as the Oz rep of some random sport we don't compete in. I've got about two years to work it out, so start saving everyone!

What I learnt most of all, is that I miss the Winter Olympics. I'm counting down the days until Beijing, 2022!

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