Why I loved the Olympics

If you are like me the daytimes from the 27th of July to the 12th of August were almost a waste of time. I was a bloodshot eyed, tired zombie. Yep I was one of the many New Zealanders who became addicted to the late nights of the Olympic Games. 

There’s something magical about watching the worlds fittest people on their biggest stage. The ridiculous skills, speed, strength and endurance ability of these amazing people shone under the most competitive environment most of them could ever face. 

There’s so much to love about the Olympics. There’s the patriotic stuff like watching the Kiwis Murray and Bond destroying the field in the rowing. The emotional stories like the female fencer who lost due to a timing issue. Then we have elegance of watching the gymnast moving in ways that seem impossible. There’s a beauty to all of it. 

While it’s easy to see why the Olympics are appealing there’s one thing I love to watch more than anything else at the games. It’s the moment before these highly focused people are going to compete. Imagine that you have spent the last four years of your life assessing yourself daily and working with discipline to improve even the smallest aspects of yourself. You sacrifice, doubt, struggle, have experiences that make you feel like a superhero and others where you feel your world is crumbling. You put out all of this energy for this one opportunity, this one moment. It’s this moment that I’m curious about, that excites me. 

Most of us live a life where the everyday habit is good enough. We can learn a lot from these phenomenal humans. To commit to growth, to face yourself day to day and contemplate how you can get better, to do this with no guarantees of success but to have the courage to do it anyway. To me this is living, what life is meant to be about, gold medal or not. 

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