In a couple of days, the 2010 Winter Olympic games will start: this year, Vancouver, BC, Canada will host the games. If you’re into this, the full schedule is of course readily available online. Which reminds me that a couple of months ago, the Olympic torch did pass by Saint John, NB. On November 25th, I witnessed the Olympic procession on Prince William’s: this was quite a non-event. On the other hand, it was fairly early morning then.
The first Olympic Games I remember is the 1980’s one, hosted by the city of Moscow. This was at the height of the Cold War and for some reason, that year, was also the first time countries were calling for a boycott of the games, mainly to protest the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet army. Countries that boycotted the games organized their own games, which became known as the ‘Liberty Bell games’. The Dutch did send a delegation to Moscow and while I don’t think they won any gold medals, I do remember the silver medal of the marathon athlete Nijboer. Vaguely though.
I haven’t decided if I’ll be following some of the games: Most likely not. The only interesting sport would be speed skating, I guess. There was a time that only Dutch and Norwegian speed skaters took the major prizes. Hopefully that has changed.