Olympics

In honor of the Olympics (which, surprisingly, I have been watching some), I'm going to remember things associated with the Olympics of the past. Because I've never been too big of an Olympics watcher, there's not too much.

Vancouver, 2010. I would frequently come home to my roommates watching the Olympics, but I didn't. I think I might have turned them on briefly once. I think my mom asked me on the phone if I was watching them, but I wasn't. I kind of regret how little I watched of them.

Beijing, 2008. I was on my mission, so I of course didn't watch any of them. During interviews, President Clark told us about what Michael Phelps was doing, and he made it clear that we couldn't watch them (not that any of us were). Elder Killpack knew a lot about how Michael Phelps was doing, and President asked him, "How do you know that?" in kind of a mock accusatory tone. The Wenatchee 2nd elders lived with one Sister Grant who was very old--97 or something like that--and Elder Killpack told us that one day she was watching some martial arts movie on TV but she told Elder Killpack she was watching the "Olympics in China," and Elder Killpack told her, "I don't think that's the Olympics."

Torino, 2006. I remember my family watching the opening ceremonies and I caught glimpses of the flying routine. The next day in my computer class, Andrew Jones was talking about how awesome that was. After the Olympics were over, a German foreign-exchange student in my French class, Tim, was talking proudly about how Germany won the Olympics, but Mrs. Jamison said that just because they won they most medals, they didn't win the Olympics--you can't "win" the Olympics.

Athens, 2004. I thought it was cool that they would put laurel-leaf crowns on the victors' heads. I remember that the commercials during the Olympics were for Emerald Nuts, and they would be silly things like "Enormous Neighbors love Emerald Nuts." Another commercial--I think a phone commercial--had the swim team in their speedos. One day I was exercising downstairs and watching one of my shows. David was downstairs and when I was done I told him he could watch whatever he wanted. He wanted to watch the Olympics, so we turned it on and it was diving, and I think one of the divers was from Utah. On another occasion I watched a men's beach volleyball meet and the U.S. won. The players were so excited they hugged on the ground. Later I saw a commercial or promo or something that showed three of the best Olympic highlights, and that victory was one they showed. I was surprised that one of the few things I watched was in the commercial. I remember my mom and sister being annoyed at the fact that the women's beach volleyball players wore bikinis. My cousin's husband Cameron was defending them, saying they moved better in them, but Susanne said they didn't make the guys play in speedos. I remember something about the Olympics and my photography class, but I don't remember what.

Salt Lake, 2002. Being a native Utahn, of course there's a lot I remember about these Olympics. For Christmas before the Olympics, I got a hanging window decoration of the Olympic mascots. There was certainly a lot of hubbub about them! I think they had Olympic rings on the mountain side to light up (like they do the U) and there was concern about that being a potential terrorist target (this was, after all, only five months after 9/11). There was a lot of discussion about Olympic pins. There was a green jello pin. My mom got a missionary pin (since David was on a mission), and there was controversy about that because the Olympics weren't supposed to be religious. Deseret Book sold pins that said "I speak [language]," each in the relevant language, of course. Schools sold school-themed pins, so I got a South Davis Junior High one. Everyone liked the bear, fox, and rabbit mascots. I kept my American flag net light set up throughout the Olympics. On the morning of the opening, we awoke early and drove down to the bottom of the hill (we watched the Reeds across the street do the same thing) to watch the torch come down Highway 89. I know that the girls' coach at SDJH, "Wangs" or Coach Wangsguard, got to carry the torch, and SDJH displayed it afterwards. That night, my cousins came over to watch the opening ceremonies. My mom had a student from her school class in the opening ceremonies; I found the act quite hokey, with a boy (my mom's student) being chased by malevolent icicle creatures. Joey was telling us the origin of the Olympics, but of course we already knew it. I think we went outside to see if we could see the fireworks from the stadium, but I can't remember if we saw them. A major fad during the Olympics was the weird patriotic berets the team wore; you'd go to the store and someone would be wearing a Roots beret. Even my grandparents went to the Roots store, although I don't know if they bought berets. There were pictographs representing all the events. I learned about lots of events I didn't know of before, such as slalom, skeleton, and curling. At one point my mom and dad bought me some Olympic socks. SDJH gave out tickets to random students, and I was fortunate enough to get one. This is from my Valentine's Day memory post: "My school had given a bunch of us tickets to the Olympics, and this Thursday was the day I got to go. I wore a red shirt. Those of us who were going were in the commons area, waiting, and there was a conversation about Chewy Gobstoppers. Then we loaded the bus. We parked at a parking lot and then rode shuttles up to the event. I was by myself. Tyler Brklacich invited me to sit with a bunch of them but I declined. There were people there wearing American flags as capes. I don't remember what the event was; I think it was women's slalom. At one point I bought a very expensive hot dog. Later I felt dumb that I bought a hot dog when for nearly the same price I could have bought a mascot item that I could keep forever. I saw some men drinking beer and they had spilled some drops on the railing. Somehow I touched the beer drops, which made my glove smell terrible. I already knew alcohol was bad because of the Word of Wisdom and because of Red Ribbon Week and DARE, but the smell further convinced me beer was no good. When the event was over, I was worried. I couldn't find anyone from school, and I hoped that the bus wouldn't leave without me. We were all walking out and there was a bluegrass musician playing stuff over the loudspeaker, and he invited everyone to sing along to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." This excited me, and after the regular lyrics he said, "The Beverly Hillbillies" just like they do on the show and continued playing the intro. I got on the shuttle and was still worried about the bus. Would I have to walk until I found a gas station and then call my mom and tell her I was stranded? I sat by a window and a foreign woman asked, "May I join you?" It sounded like "May otoño?" I nodded but didn't say anything because I didn't know if she'd understand and I was so worried about the bus. When we got off the shuttle I was so relieved that the bus was still there and I ran to it so it wouldn't leave. When I got home, I told my mom about my experience and she was mad at the teachers that I was alone. We had heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and I was excited to watch and record the new Peanuts special debuting that night, A Charlie Brown Valentine." One day Carolyn Millard came to our house and gave us a plate of Olympic-colored ring cookies because she had neglected to do anything for Christmas or New Year's. In Utah History we had to fill out a sheet about Olympics, including what our favorite event was. I think I said "slalom" because I didn't know what else to put. There was discussion that slalom was really bad for athletes' knees. I'm sure there's a lot more I could remember--it's just so broad and there are so many memories I can't get them all down.

Sydney, 2000. Before the Olympics, I read my National Geographic magazine World and it did a feature on the Olympic mascots; I was particularly intrigued by the echidna. I remember seeing a picture in the newspaper that showed someone carrying the torch underwater and I wondered how they did that. I was in sixth grade, and one of my classmates had an Olympic backpack. I remember watching a feature on TV where they showed the Olympic caldron and people standing outside the stadium pretending to hold it. They asked one cute little girl with an Australian accent why she should be the designated fire-holder and she said, "Because, I'm only in kindergarten!" After a while she started moaning: "My arm's getting tired." I remember going to our neighbors the Andersons' house for some scout thing about drugs and Zenda Schwab told us she loved watching the Olympics and would stand up and sing during the medal ceremonies when the U.S. won. I remember my mom hating one male athlete's earrings during a medals ceremony. I believe September 23 was the day that I had to go to the Bountiful "Bubble" for a merit badge thing, and an old guy there was really friendly and pretended to warm his hands on Ryan Jones's red hair, and I looked outside and pointed out that it was snowing but Jaydon Bean believed it was only raining. Anyway, on this day, David had his friends over (my mom was out of town, although that's not why he had them over) and his friend Andrea was complaining about the beach volleyball outfits. The U.S. was playing Brazil, and Brazil's country abbreviation was BRA, and David and his friends were saying they thought that was referring to the bra of the bikini and that the Brazilian flag was the logo of the bra company.

Nagano, 1998. Before the Olympics started, our teacher, Mrs. Fisher, told us about the original Olympics, and how women weren't allowed, but it wasn't because the men were running around naked. Our school would broadcast Olympic documentaries to the classrooms during the afternoon. I think at home we would watch figure skating.

Atlanta, 1996. One day in first grade, we were informed that we were going down to watch the Olympic torch. So we all walked down from Orchard Elementary to Highway 89 by Bob's Deli to watch the torch. As first-graders, none of us really knew what was going on. That summer I remember watching Olympics with my siblings. We were watching women race, and my siblings commented on the muscles of their legs--I said they were fat (because they were big) and my siblings corrected me. I was intrigued by the mascot of the Olympics. One day I decided to make a book of the Olympics and I drew a picture of the mascot.

Lillehammer, 1994. (I had to use Wikipedia to get the place.) I remember my family watching figure skating.

Barcelona, 1992. All I remember is that my brother had a t-shirt of the American Dream Team, with basketball players like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin. But I probably remember this more from him wearing it after the Olympics than during them. But I do have a memory of the shirt at a store, possibly from the night he got it.