Olympic spirit.

Being Malagasy, the exposure to the winter games was minimum and as a result, the interest in the event somewhat close to zero. However, after trying my hand at skiing, I found a new respect for the athletes. The monetary pay-off is certainly lesser than in any other professional sports yet the necessary effort to win cannot be less than maximum. From that perspective, the winter olympics is probably closer to the spirit from which it was born. A few stories come to mind, of course our first athlete particpated in the alpine slalom and G-slalom ( G stands for Giant, I would so not care for any of this if it were not for him). He finished 39th with a time of 3:06:43 in the G-Slalom. Well, I say that's not too shabby for a first time.
Another nice story was that of frenchwoman Carole Montillet-Carles. She is a former gold winner but in Turino, she crashed pretty badly resulting in injuries to her back , ribs and face ( her googles smashed into her face and left nasty cuts and a swollen purple cheeks ). Yet, she jumped right back up and finished her second try, knowing that she had no chances at getting a medal. She just would not NOT participate in the event to honor her sport. Classy and courageous indeed. The truth is there are probably more stories such as that one which makes the olympics quite unique. That is just the only one I came across. So next time you see Justine Henin retiring for upset stomach in a grand slam final or Artest taking a few days off to promote a CD, remember that it does not have to be that way. ( If I sound bitter, it's because I think that Henin and Artest are actually great athletes, they just blew it on those occasions).

Tags: olympic spirit, Madagascar, Carole Montillet-Carles, Carles, Henin, Artest