{"id":32694,"date":"2024-07-30T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/?p=32694"},"modified":"2024-07-29T16:25:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T20:25:15","slug":"memories-of-olympics-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/memories-of-olympics-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of Olympics Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It often is a surprise to those who know that I am a college professor to learn that I am also a sports fanatic. In truth, the most rabid sports fans I know are some of my academic colleagues\u2014we talk trash about our favorite teams and athletes with the same energy you might find at any sports bar; indeed, we often have such arguments while drinking adult beverages. My own sports addictions have become selective as I get older, now largely focused on the Red Sox and the Providence College Friars. And the Olympics. I love the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The recently begun Paris Summer Olympics have arrived at the perfect time Although I enjoy track and field , the first week of the Summer Olympics is always my favorite, maybe because the focus is on two sports so far out of my wheelhouse that excellence in these sports strikes me as something otherworldly. I can swim just well enough to keep from drowning, so the towering achievements of Olympic swimmers blow me away. The limit of my gymnastic abilities is performing a somersault (I\u2019m pretty sure I can\u2019t even do that anymore, and I\u2019m definitely not going to try), so watching Simone Biles and the rest of the U.S. women\u2019s gymnastics team blow away their competition on the television at the ferry bar as Jeanne and I returned from Long Island last Sunday caused me once again to marvel at what a human being is capable of achieving.<\/p>\n

As I look back over my personal timeline, I realize that the Olympics are one of several recurring events that I use to organize my memories and locate myself in the increasingly misty atmosphere of the past. Certain events and athletes became part of my history\u2014here are a few from my early years:<\/p>\n

1968<\/strong>\u2014The Grenoble Winter Games are the first that I remember clearly. I had just started learning to ski and France\u2019s Jean-Claude Killy, winner of all three major skiing gold medals, was my hero. I knew, of course, that I was supposed to cheer for American athletes, but my patriotism could not withstand my strong attraction to winners. \"1968<\/a>1968, of course, was a year of assassinations, unrest, and turmoil; the Summer Olympics, held in the high altitude and air pollution of Mexico City, were the stage for an iconic protest. During the medals ceremony for the 200-meter race, gold-medalist Tommie Smith and bronze-medalist John Carlos raised black-gloved fists throughout the playing of the National Anthem. Many, including my parents, were outraged, but I recall only thinking of what courage it must have taken for them to make this human rights statement at what was supposed to be an apolitical event. Smith later said, \u201cIf I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

1972<\/strong>: American swimmer Mark Spitz won seven swimming gold medals in the Munich Summer Olympics\u2014an achievement that stood until Michael Phelps won eight golds at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. But Spitz\u2019s remarkable achievement was overshadowed by the Munich Massacre, the first time that terrorism burst into my consciousness. \"munich<\/a>Eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage by a Palestinian terrorist group; twenty-four hours later all eleven were dead. I\u2019ll never forget my mother bursting into tears when Jim McKay, the multiple-award winning host of ABC\u2019s \u201cWide World of Sports,\u201d wept as he broke the terrible news.<\/p>\n

When I was a kid my father used to say \u201cOur greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized.\u201d Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said there were 11 hostages; two were killed in their rooms this morn\u2013 yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They\u2019re all gone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1976<\/strong>: I got married (the first time) less than two months before the beginning of the Montreal Summer Olympics, but they are locked in my memory for a couple of reasons. F\"Comanici\"<\/a>irst, Montreal is only a couple of hours north of where I grew up. Second, they were the Olympics of Nadia Comaneci, the first gymnast ever to receive a perfect score of \u201c10\u201d in the Olympics. She was everyone\u2019s darling\u2014she was cute, spectacularly talented, and in the middle of the Cold War, it was a big plus that she wasn\u2019t Russian (although I doubt many of my friends and family could have located Romania on a map). The rise of the United States as a world force to be reckoned with in gymnastics began over the next decade, largely fueled by young gymnasts who wanted to \u201cbe like Nadia.\u201d<\/p>\n

1980<\/strong>: Every American above a certain age\"miracle\"<\/a> can tell you exactly where she or he was when a bunch of US college kids beat the greatest hockey team in the world in the Miracle on Ice at the Winter Games in Lake Placid. I was standing with my mother and father in the middle of their Florida condominium living room, screaming at the television and reveling in Al Michaels\u2019 famous call: Do you believe in miracles? YES!!!<\/strong> Thirty-five years later memories of that evening came flooding back as I screamed at the television watching the final seconds count down on a wildly improbable victory by the Providence Friars men\u2019s hockey team in the 2015 national college championship game. Miracles do happen\u2014sometimes thirty-five years apart.<\/p>\n

\"Sarajevo\"<\/p>\n

1984<\/strong>: The opening of ABC\u2019s \u201cWide World of Sports\u201d used to include a montage of clips illustrating \u201cthe thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.\u201d The Winter Olympics in Sarajevo featured Torvill and Dean, the ice dancing pair from Great Britain who earned twelve perfect scores from the judges for their program choreographed to one of my favorite pieces of music, Ravel\u2019s \u201cBolero.\u201d Less than a decade later, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sarajevo was the epicenter of the vicious and bloody Bosnian War; thousands died during the four-year siege of Sarajevo. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat indeed.<\/p>\n

\"ali<\/p>\n

And so many more\u2014The US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Games followed by the Soviet boycott of the 1984 games in Los Angeles, where Mary Lou Retton struck gold for the US in gymnastics; The Battle of the Brians at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary;\u00a0Muhammad Ali lighting the torch at the 1996 Atlanta games;\u00a0Michael Phelps\u2019 dominance of five straight summer games.<\/p>\n

Some time ago, an Episcopal priest friend used the following poem from the immortal Dr. Seuss in his sermon:<\/p>\n

How did it get so late so soon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s night before it\u2019s afternoon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

December is here before it\u2019s June.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My goodness how the time has flewn<\/strong><\/p>\n

How did it get so late so soon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The thrust of his sermon was \u201cdon\u2019t waste time,\u201d using Seuss\u2019 poem and several of the day\u2019s readings to emphasize the importance of not letting opportunities to be Christ in the world escape our daily notice. The poem comes back to me now as a reminder of how each of our lives are marked by memorable events, the hooks, so to speak, on which we hang the various garments of our lives.<\/p>\n

The Olympics have served that purpose for me for six decades\u2014a regular touchstone populated by people forever young in my memory as I grow older. Olympic memories cause me to both recognize the passage of time and the eternal youth of the human spirit. No wonder I\u2019m a sports fanatic.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It often is a surprise to those who know that I am a college professor to learn that I am also a sports fanatic. In truth, the most rabid sports fans I know are some of my academic colleagues\u2014we talk trash about our favorite teams and athletes with the same energy you might find at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2938,"featured_media":32697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16,29,36,39,48,56,63,65,89,97],"tags":[370,443],"class_list":["post-32694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty","category-canada","category-episcopal","category-family","category-friends","category-human-nature","category-jeanne","category-love","category-miracles","category-sports","category-time","tag-olympics","tag-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nMemories of Olympics Past<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Olympics are one of several recurring events that I use to organize my memories and locate myself in the increasingly misty atmosphere 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