The World Competes

Gymnast 3 print by prophoto

Today’s A to Z Blog Challenge word is Competition for the letter C. I think that a lot of us look to the Olympics every time it comes around as a time to see some of the best of the best competing. We like to root for our country, and sometimes we get the chance to root for the underdog. I always like it when I see a country that has never medaled before get the gold, silver, or bronze. However, competition isn’t just something that we have to wait to see every other year. We can be a part of it every day.

The Olympians that we watch prepare for years to get to that one moment where they can be in the spotlight. In some rare cases, athletes get to go two or three times. Others might get to run in one race before their Olympic career is over. Many more never make it to the Olympics. We all can compete with ourselves.

The Olympic motto, translated into English, is “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. During the Olympics, we get to see the best of the best break world records. Right now, we can break our own personal records. Can we run or swim faster than yesterday? Can we improve a new yoga posture? We don’t even have to limit ourselves to athletics; can we learn something new today, or do our work better? Whatever we do, we don’t have to settle for being the person that we were yesterday. While we may never be one of the greatest in the world, we can become better. Even if we meet with setbacks, there is always something that we can strive for.

Today is the second day of the A-Z Blog Challenge… the B-word of the day is Buying. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to go to the games, in addition to learning some basic Russian phrases, you’ll want to buy tickets to the games. There are a couple of ways that you can do this.

If you are from Russia, you’ll want to go to the Sochi ticket sales site. There are limits on the numbers of tickets that you can buy, and if you are buying tickets for high-demand events, then you’ll be able to buy fewer tickets. Prices depend on what event you want to go to, and where your seat is. Tickets for a high-demand event like the opening ceremonies range from 50,000 Rubles at the high range (about $1600 USD) to 6,000 Rubles (about $193 USD). Lower demand events cost less.

If you live outside of Russia, you’ll need to go to one of the Authorized Ticket Resellers. They allot a certain amount of tickets to people from each country. Some of the locations might have sold out already.

If the event that you want has already sold out (if you live in the US, there aren’t any more Opening Ceremonies tickets, as an example), then you can always go someplace like eBay to buy tickets. The prices there can be a lot higher than they are by buying from an Authorized Ticket Reseller, but if you have your heart set on a certain event, then it might be the place to get the tickets that you really want.

Some places will sell ticket and hotel packages. This might be another way to get tickets that you otherwise might not be able to find. Be advised, if you buy tickets from one of the official Sochi sites, then you’ll have to use a Visa card (but debit cards count). If you don’t have a Visa card, you can always go to the grocery store and pick up a prepaid Visa Debit card. There are many types of these debit cards that allow you to put the exact amount that you want on it.

Russia Postcards by Brookelorren
View Russia Postcards online at zazzle

This is the beginning of the A-Z Blog Challenge. I figured that it was a good time to dust off this blog, and also begin to get ready for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which are less than a year away at this point. It seems like we just finished the 2012 Olympics in London, but the time period between the end of the summer Olympics and the beginning of the Winter Olympics always seems short to me.

It might be a good time to relearn and improve my Russian. Da! Us English speakers have been spoiled during the last two Olympics, because they were in locations where everybody spoke English. My aunt came from Russia, so I have extra use for it.

Sochi is the first Winter Olympics to be held in a tropical location. I’m not sure why they think holding the Winter Olympics in a tropical location is a good idea, but I guess the mountains there get a good amount of snow. They don’t need snow to do ice skating or any of the indoor sports either. Hopefully we will not see another repeat of Vancouver, where they didn’t have enough snow, which caused delays and other problems.

USA 2012 Team USA Games Sticker by USATeam
Get the best in sticker printing at zazzle.

Tonight (which will probably be a lot earlier in my time zone here in the USA) the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics begin. The Opening Ceremonies are always exciting to watch, with a lot of cultural elements from the host country, and of course, the Parade of Nations.

I won’t be able to watch it live myself (I’m out in Texas for a political event), but I set my Tivo before I left home and I’ll watch it when I return on Monday morning. Along with all the other great events that will be going on for the next couple of weeks.

One thing that has been on the back of my mind for the last couple of weeks is the Munich Olympics. I wasn’t even alive yet when they happened, but it was a sad day in Olympic history. I may write about it at some future date, but for those who may not know, several Israeli athletes were killed on that date.

As much as I love the Olympics and the Opening Ceremonies, I realize that the situation in the world right now is pretty unstable. A lot of people in Europe especially are struggling right now. Syria is a mess, and extremists around the world haven’t been reigned in. The London Olympics seem to be providing world-class security, but you never really know what can happen. I used to work in security, and you generally can find a way to make an attack if you really put your mind to it. The Olympics are the place where people wanting to bring terror in the world can do so with the eyes of the world watching.

I’m praying for a safe Olympics. This is generally the one time that people from other countries can set aside their differences for the sake of competition. My kids and I have already been celebrating the Olympics (we went to US men’s gymnastics contestant Alex Naddour’s celebration party before he left for London). Although I won’t be able to enjoy all of the competition live for the next few days while I am out on the road, I will be paying attention as I can and will be excited to get back home to start watching the games.

Over the last several years, I’ve come to realize the benefits of how good food can affect your health. I’ve also seen the destruction that bad food can cause. Several years ago, I had severe memory problems. I was able to trace it back to aspartame; I was able to recover most of my thinking abilities since, but that was the first time that I ever had the realization that there’s a lot more to food than just calories.

Evidently, Chinese Olympians are also realizing how food is more than just calories. If they eat the wrong foods, they could be disqualified from competing in the Olympics. In order to avoid being disqualified for using drugs, they are resorting to growing their own food. Evidently, conventional meat (at least the kind sold in China) can contain an anabolic steroid called clenbuterol. If they test positive for the steroid, they can be banned from competition.

I’m not sure what this new development says. Are these steroid-laced foods limited to China, or do we all have a problem with what we’re eating? Officials in the United Kingdom warned their athletes against eating liver for the same problem. Are drug testing procedures too stringent? While I don’t support athletes using banned substances to improve their performance, if people can’t even eat ordinary food and pass a drug test, then perhaps the testing procedures are too strict (of course, it’s a little gross to think about steroids being in your food).

Growing healthy, hormone-free meat is likely to produce stronger athletes (I personally notice the difference between conventional and organic, free-range eggs), but it is concerning that in the future, athletes may have to solely eat these kinds of food in order to remain eligible to compete.

The Olympic Torch relay is now underway (I’m watching the torch lighting ceremony that’s taking place in Greece as I type this). The Olympic flame has been lit in Greece, and now the torch will travel from Greece and around the United Kingdom, until it finally arrives at the opening ceremonies in London.

I’ve never ran with the torch, but I did get to participate in the torch relay for the 1996 Atlanta Games. Los Angeles had been the last city to host the Olympics that year, and I was going to college at USC at the time. They asked for some Navy ROTC volunteers to carry the flag for the torch relay when it began in Los Angeles, and I thought that it would be something exciting to do. I got to carry the American Flag.

It should be an exciting summer. Michael Phelps is expected to compete again this year, and he could break the record for the number of career gold medals. Of course, there is always a lot of excitement when it comes to running, gymnastics, and all the other great sports of the summer games. Unfortunately, I’m going to be in Texas for the first couple of days; fortunately, I have a Tivo that will be able to record everything for me.

On a personal note, this year my kids will probably take more interest in the gymnastics part of the games. My daughter just made her gymnastics team, and my little boy is just starting to learn a few skills of his own (I was very impressed that he was able to do a handstand against the wall the other day… not bad for a five year old). We get to see a lot of impressive gymnasts on a regular basis (my kids train at the gym USA Olympic team member Alexander Naddour’s dad owns, so we’ll definitely be rooting for him), but it will be great to see the best in the world.

78 more days to go!

It’s hard to believe that the 2012 Olympics are only a few months away. I’m still a little nervous that World War III might erupt before they start and end up cancelling the Olympics, but we can hope for the best. In the meantime, there are new stories to cover.

One of them is the feel-good story of Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, who will be competing in the Olympics for Malaysia while 8 months pregnant.

I’ve heard stories of people who gave up their Olympic dreams to avoid having an abortion, and I’m sure that there have been more than one Olympian who did have an abortion to compete in the Olympics; good for her that she will still be competing (although I’m not sure if this story would occur in one of the more competitive countries).

I know some people who stop exercising entirely while they’re pregnant. They’re afraid that something might happen to the baby. I personally have kept exercising with both of my babies – with my daughter, I had the opportunity to work out with Billy Blanks once when I was about six months pregnant. I wasn’t able to perform as strongly as before, but I still exercised.

It will be interesting to see how she does.

British Royals have announced that Prince William and his wife Kate have been named ambassadors for the London 2012 Olympics. Other British athletes from previous Olympics have also been named ambassadors. The couple married earlier this year in a widely televised wedding.

Olympic ambassadors are chosen to encourage and inspire the public to get behind the Olympics. With Prince William and Kate’s popularity, I’m sure that they will be able to do an outstanding job with this.

The London Olympics are scheduled to begin on July 27th, and should run through August 12th. Between then and now, there will also be the first Winter Youth Olympics, which will be held in Innsbruck. The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, held in Singapore, were poorly distributed, in my opinion. With the excellent technology that is now available, hopefully they can do a better job making the Winter Youth Olympics available for people who want to see them. My suggestion: make the broadcasts available on both the computer and on the Internet via Roku. Of course, the London Olympics will be widely available.

The London Olympics are only 470 days away. I hope that they turn out well; I wish I could be there, but I’ll probably have to wait until 2016 Rio before I get the chance (if the world’s chaos has cleared up by then, or at least has not gotten so bad that they don’t hold the Olympics then).

If you want to get tickets to the games, now is the time to act. They are taking applications for the tickets between now and April 26th at Tickets.london2012.com, if you are a resident of the United Kingdom or of one of the designated European countries. If you’re a US citizen like me, you’ll have to get your tickets through Cosport.com, the official ticket reseller. If you’re from another country, you can check the ticket availability page to see where you can buy your tickets.

For more information about the 2012 Olympics, I am keeping a Squidoo page on the subject.

Gymnastics is one of my favorite Olympic sports. It’s one that I can’t do, but I like to watch it because it is so beautiful. Both of my kids are in gymnastics, but they’re very low-level (my 4 year old was just promoted to the boy’s novice class, and my 8 year old is level 3). Even still, I love to watch the team gymnasts at our gym practice.

Gymnastics takes quite a bit of strength and balance… and years and years of training. You sometimes hear stories of runners taking up running in high school, but a good deal of the gymnasts that you see at the elite level have been practicing since they were little. It takes a lot of talent, but it also takes years and years of practice.

I think I like ladies’ gymnastics better, but they’re both awesome. There’s always some dramatic moments in the Olympics. You have to hope that your team doesn’t fall or make a fatal mistake, and hope that nobody gets injured.

Pictured here is a photo from the 1896 Athens Olympics. They did their gymnastics outside. That would be a pretty weird sight to see.