No, unfortunately, I am not at the Olympic games, but I was transported there by the amazing opening ceremonies from the incredible "birds nest" stadium. 15,000 Chinese citizens took part in the historical, cultural human displays, each only performing once in strict, precision and practiced, perfect moves.
Frequently forming the "harmony" symbol, I was moved by their seemingly reaching out to the world saying, "we are here, we are strong, we are catching up and we want to be one with the world..like you". Hopefully they will endeavor to improve their human rights position and practices after the games.
Maybe I am naive but I feel there is hope for our planet and these Olympic games came just in time.
The only less than enthusiastic comment I can make is that during the "Parade of Nations", NBC should have had a global map inset showing the location of each nation as the networks have done in past coverage. This is a great learning tool for people of all ages.
Olympic Bytes:
Some historical tidbits that you may have known but have forgotten...
1896 Athens: The first victory in modern Olympic games was awarded to James B. Connolly in the hop, step and jump.
1900 Paris: More athletes than spectators attended.
1908 London: The marathon was extended from 25 miles to the current 26.2 miles so the Royal Family could have a view of the race from the Palace.
1920 Antwerp: The Olympic flag with its 5 rings makes its debut.
1928 Amsterdam: The Olympic torch is introduced. Johnny Weissmuller wins 2 more gold medals (he won 3 in 1924) and went on to star in 12 movies as Tarzan.
1932 Los Angeles: Introduced the victory platform and playing of the winners national anthem.
1938 Berlin: The torch relay brings the flame for the first time. American Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals dicrediting Adolph Hitler's theory of Aryan supremacy.
1956 Melbourne: As the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, the games were held from November 22 - December 8. For the first time, athletes marched together at the close of the games to show global unity.
1960 Rome: American Wilma Rudolph wins triple gold medals despite bouts with polio, double pneumonia and scarlet fever that made her leg nearly useless. And we have had bad days?
1972 Munich: Most (some) of us will never forget the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes as reported by the tireless Jim McKay. Mark Spitz wins an unprecedented 7 gold medals in swimming.
1976 Montreal: Gymnast Nadia Comaneci makes an Olympic first by getting a perfect 10 score seven times.
1980 Moscow: USA boycotts the games.
1984 Los Angeles: The Soviets boycott the games but more countries than ever attend. American Mary Lou Retton wins a gold, silver and bronze medal.
1992 Barcelona: USA "Dream Team" defeats Croatia 117 - 85 for the gold medal in basketball.
1996 Atlanta: American Kerri Strup competes with a sprained ankle to win a gold for her team.
Olympic Wrap...
A Chinese children's choir sang in Greek the same song that was first sung at the Olympics in Athens in 1896. The torch lighting was unbelievable as was the entire evenings' ceremony. Can it really be topped? Stay tuned and we'll see in 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Canada.
Factoid: 1/5 of the worlds population lives in China...over 1.3 billion people.
Minor factoid: Ralph Lauren designed the opening ceremony uniforms for the USA athletes.
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