I've been away & it's Olympic time

I realize it's been awhile since I posted. Truth is I've been busy. I went to Singapore on business and between the preparation and the travel, almost a month has FLOWN by. In addition, I haven't been watching many movies. I HAVE been watching the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. I LOVE the Olympics and I really can't overstate that. I am an Olympic junkie and since I'm watching it on my TV screen, I decided to blog about that. The first Olympics I remember is the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics. I remember Scott Hamilton carrying in the U.S. flag, the lambskin coats the team wore, Eric Heiden and his 5 gold medals and of course, the Miracle On Ice. I also remember that the Soviet game was not the gold medal game and that my family skipped church to watch the gold medal game because it was on a Sunday. These were the days remember before DVR, DVD and even VCR. So, I am basically a couch potato when the Olympics are being broadcast. For half of these games, I was in Singapore and completely maxed out my DVR with the telecast, so I have spent the last few days trying to catch up.
Now, why I love the athletics and seeing sports that we in the U.S. only watch every four years, what I really enjoy is all the sentimental stuff. I love the stories of comebacks, the sacrifices made to get to the Olympics, and the cultural things they share about the host nation and the nations of the many athletes. I enjoy the stories of athletes that KNOW they aren't going to medal, but just want to be there, like the Turkish skater, Tugba Karademir, whose parents literally gave up everything they had so their daughter could compete. They emigrated to Canada so she could train and worked menial jobs for the money. They couldn't afford to see her in Torino and thought the same thing about Vancouver, but then someone paid their expenses and they were able to see their daughter skate as an Olympian. I bawled like a baby watching that story and I'm tearing up while I write this. Those are the stories that make it worth watching. Then there are the stories like Bode Miller, in essence, redeeming his poor performance in Torino. He was a changed man. I also love the stories that Tom Brokaw and Mary Carillo share. They all just touch my heart.
So, I've still got a few days of the Olympics to catch up on and then I'll be back to my normal movie reviews. Until then, if you have a computer, go to NBCOlympics.com and check out some of the highlight clips and touching stories that make the Olympics so awesome.