Citius, Altius, Fortius

Since the advent of the modern Olympic games, the althetes have pledged and lived by the motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius.  In Latin, this translates as Swifter, Higher, Braver.  Somewhere along the line, the translation changed the last word to Stronger, but the intent is still the same.  Each country is invited to send athletes to compete in a world arena, where being first is not necessarily the priority.  There can only be one gold, silver and bronze medal winner.  But each athlete is invited to give his or her best effort, to strive for personal excellence and to belong to a greater world community where everyone follows the same rules.  I have always held in my heart that the Olympics were about setting aside politics, prejudices and power struggles.  For me the Olympics embody friendship through sportsmanship and the good old axiomthat it is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game.

When I was a little girl, I always hoped and wondered why the leaders of our nations couldn't use the Olympic games to settle differences.  It was so much more peaceful than war, or banging shoes or pointing warheads at each other.  Ah to be seven again and not know what I know.

My first memories of the Olympics center around skating.  Every one of my friends and I wanted to be Peggy Fleming! She was so beautiful and graceful.  My sisters and I got ice skates because of Peggy Fleming and many a winter's afternoon was spent skating on the pond at Bear Hill Country Club...and our imaginations took us to Grenoble or Sapporo or Innsbruk.  I had a crush on Mark Spitz...I sported Dorothy Hamill's hair-do at Stoneham High School ...yup, just look at my yearbook picture...and much to my own satisfaction and joy, I was inspired to be athletic.  I was a fish in the water....swimming miles upon miles of laps in the Sand Pool at Fort Eustis. I still love to swim laps. I played volley ball and soft ball in school.  I took up archery in college.  Swifter, Higher Stronger...all part of a balanced life...not a competitive life though.  I participated in sports to be a part of a team, but more so to challenge myself and center myself.  I think if I were to take up an Olympic sport now, it would be Curling.  I love curling...and at my age I think I just might be able to do it!  Curling is a great team sport.  It requires thought, patience, finesse and who doesn't love a sport with a broom?

My families then and now still love the Olympics.  I don't think I have missed any of the Summer or Winter Games.  I love that the Olympics are on during February school vacation and of course there are the Olympic games of summer vacation.  Watching the Olympic is a family tradition...even across the ocean, my girls and Bill and I watch highlights and compare our own judging notes and scores. We swell with pride at victory or cry a little with defeat...but we always honor good sportsmanship!  Hold on for the scolding bad sports get later on in this blog!

I grew up watching the Olympics and I grew up because of the Olympics.  Munich 1972 was the year that I realized the world was not able to settle differences on the playing field.  The terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes changed my life.  A part of my childhood was stolen and that incident started to shape my own politics.  It surprised me that I could go from a child who wanted the world to settle the score through friendly competition to a pre-teen, who grew up in schools with bomb shelters, thinking, why don't we just drop a bomb on the bad guys.  I was sickened and saddened that something so pure was desecrated. I could not fathom the hate that must have existed to commit such atrocities.  I was learning though.  My mother encouraged me to deal with my grief by watching the rest of the games...by watching how the athletes grieved and continued, swifter, higher stronger.  But, from 1972 on, the wound never really healed.  There have been boycotts and bombings, mismanaged funds, doping, and an ever increasing desire to win at all cost...can you say Tonya Harding?

We are trying to watch the games here in Paris.  But the 7 hour time difference is making it difficult.  We try to catch the highlights and videos on NBC Olympics on-line...but it is not the same.  We are used to six, seven, heck ten channels of Olympic sports coverage, live and delayed broadcast, expert analysis and those awesome behind the scene stories of how the athletes came to be our athletes.  Here, I follow the games on Fr 1 or 2 from about 7-8pm and then again from 10:30 until I can no longer keep my eyes open.  I have to watch with French subtitles on...there are no English ones available for these channels.  And, I am watching loads of coverage of the sports where the French are contenders...mostly the Biathalon, some skiing and some of the snow boarding.  It is interesting and a bit unnerving when you hear the local commentators dissing the Americans and hoping they will fall/fail/flop! Political correctness is not praticed the same way here as it is back home...refreshing sometimes, unexpected...always!

I got to see some of the first round of men's figure skating when Brian Joubert, from France performed.  He did well, but fell once and you'd think the world had come to an end...lots and lots of disconcerted oh,la, la's....as opposed to ooh, la, la which is a good thing.  There seems to be some shadow following he and his mother...whom from what I can gather is the reason Joubert cannot win Olympic gold in his sport.  And this seems to be a growing and offending trend...blaming someone else for athletes' failure to achieve their goals.

For Joubert, the "establishment" blames his mother for not encouraging him to train in South Korea.  The guy missed a jump and failed to complete some other planned elements...it happens.  For Evgeny Plushenko, Silver Medalist in Men's Skating, he did not win gold because as he asserts, the judges were against him and other European skaters.  He did a quad and bullied his way through the rest of his performance.  The judges found it lacking.  Lysacek did not do a quad, but his performance was technically and artistically better. Plushenko went on French TV after WINNING a Silver Medal and encouraged the European judges to bond together and "lobby" against the Americans...what???  He insisted that the IOC make mens' skating more athletic and require moves like the quadruple jumps and less about technical and artistic skill.  Where is Citius, Altius, Fortis?  Evgney, by all means, challenge yourself to do a hundred quads if you want...but a lousy quad is a lousy quad.   Such ranting smacks of athletic elitism and does not belong at the Olympics.  The person who places last has a much right to take the ice and try...to compete....to be braver than a person who has been groomed by his family and country since the day he was born to skate and win.  Or in Evgeny's situation, skate and whine.

I remember Great Britain's Eddie the Eagle Edwards, careening down the ski jump., over weight and foggy eye glasses, but coming back time and again to compete...he never won a medal, but he won the hearts of the world.  There's the Jamaican Bobsled team who didn't have a snowball's chance in Jamica and Afghanistan's Robina Muqimyar a Muslim woman who ran the 100 meters,  ran wearing trousers and longer sleeves and a head covering...but ran for her country, ran for her gender, ran for her faith...these are examples of Citius, Altius, Fortius.

Patriotism and pride in those talented men and women who represent their fellow countrymen and women is not a bad thing.  I sing and cry everytime I hear the National Anthem and see Old Glory.  I tear up when we lose and I hold my breath and pray when someone falls or fails...but I never seek to blame.  I love watching the best and I cheer louder for those who come in last...they all should be appreciated for their time and talent...maybe we need to focus more on the human side of the story rather than wonder what future endorsements may make this snowboarder a billionaire before he is thirty, hmmm?

I think it is high time all the modern Olympic athletes but most especially those whose sense of entitlement has driven the Olympic motto from their hearts should attend the next Special Olympics and Para-Olympic Games.  There lives Swifter, Higher, Braver...Swifter, Higher Stronger.  Theses Special Olympians find joy in the games, love the competiton and love their competitors.  Here honor and sportsmanship, personal triumph over real challenges and satisfaction in doing your best are paramount.  Gold, Silver and Bronze are cold metal...the handshake or embrace of your fellow athletes at the end of the contest is warm, real and far more valuable. 

This year, I have heard and read that the Olympic Games are boring.  Sports like curling and cross country skiing are dull.  Ice dancing is lame. The future of the Olympics should be Sexy, Stylin' and Extreme..sounds like Super Bowl commercial.  I hope the sports do grow and reflect the skills and realities of the 21st century, but not at the cost of Olympic ideals.  It is not about money or brand names or being best.  Citius, Altius, Fortius...it is about being human.