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| A Winter's Game - Photo by Krazytea (via Creative Commons) |
by Peggy Robin
We’re off to a great start with the 2018 Winter Games, with
all the spectacle, drama, and controversy needed to make it worthwhile for you
to set a recorder and put in the time needed to fast-forward through each day’s
tape to find the nuggets of gold (or silver or bronze) in the endless hours of
coverage
Not into it yet? Here’s a brief recap of the razzle-dazzle
opening ceremonies, shown last night:
There were:
* Larger-than-life dancing tiger puppets
* Thousands of light-up flying drones forming pictures of peace
doves and a snowboarder, and the Olympic rings in the sky
* Wowie-zowie fireworks, occurring not just once, but in
colorful bursts throughout the evening’s festivities
* Many precision human formations, making good use of some light-up
props and special effects
* A long, long, long parade of athletes of all the nations,
the highlight of which was this Tongan guy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc2XfSwHCiU]
– you might remember him from the Summer Games in Brazil, appearing with his
naked torso oiled to brilliant sheen, grass skirt below – but this time around
he was bopping along in the 17◦F cold, waving the Tongan flag. He’s
back as a cross-country skier (in the Rio games, he did taekwondo), but deserves
his own special medal for the Half-naked High-stepping Frigid Flag Handling
Event.
* The parade of
nations finished up with the entrance of the combined South Korean/North Korean
teams, all in white, all smiling as if joined together in peace and harmony
from this day forward, as if all the bloodshed and horrors of the past decades
could be so easily set aside, not to mention the threats of nuclear annihilation
of just the last few months.
* The cauldron was lit and the games declared open –
although several events had already occurred, including a new, mixed doubles
curling event.
Here’s NBC’s highlights reel -- the best minute and fifteen
seconds out of the whole 3-hour shebang: https://www.nbcolympics.com/video/top-moments-2018-winter-olympics-opening-ceremony
As for the next two weeks: I’ll be glued to the figure
skating, the big skiing events, and ice hockey. And women’s bobsledding – as this
time around there are TWO teams from tropical/no-snow countries to liven things
up with their fish-out-of-water-and-sliding-down-a-bobsled-run story-line.
There’s the Jamaican women’s team, with their sled named “Cool Bolt,” with a
nod to both the Disney movie “Cool Runnings” and the greatest Jamaican Olympian
ever, Usain Bolt. And there’s the Nigerian women’s bobsled team, four
Texas-educated track stars with Nigerian roots, who live and train in the US.
Too bad neither women’s team is thought to have a chance! Learn about the Jamaican
women here: https://sports.yahoo.com/30-years-cool-runnings-debut-jamaica-first-womens-bobsled-team-073152490.html.
And the Nigerian women here: http://people.com/sports/nigerian-women-bobsled-team-winter-olympics/
But what I’m really looking forward to most is watching the
curling. Why curling? Because there are brooms. And rocks. And pebbled ice. And
it looks like shuffleboard on skates. Gives me the illusion (well, more like
delusion) that I could do that! Here’s what you need to know to watch curling:
This and so much more will keep me off the streets for the
next two weeks….
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland ParkListserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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