The 2018 Winter Olympics Start Tomorrow!

This time it’s in PyeongChang in the Republic of Korea! And it’s about 80 miles east of Seoul. I’m told it’s a beautiful mountainous area and cold…frigidly cold!

This Winter Olympics seemed kind-of shaky with everything that’s going on with North Korea. There was talk of countries pulling out if North Korea was going to participate. And North Korea seemed iffy about letting their athletes participate. So it was a whole thing!

But here we are! The 2018 Winter Olympics actually already started with some competitions having occurred a couple of days ago. However, the opening ceremony is tomorrow.

Isn’t that weird that they do it that way? I feel bad for those athletes who have had to compete already because they missed out on getting psyched from all the hoopla…especially for those who have already lost! 🙄

Olympics-Schmolympics

So for full disclosure, I’m actually not that into the Olympics. And I never have been. I was subjected to watch all the figure skating events though because my mom and sister had control of our one t.v. But as an adult, I could not have cared less. And that goes for Winter and Summer Olympics. I can appreciate the athleticism but I’m just not one to follow any sport more than casually, much to my sports loving husband’s chagrin.

However, that’s all about to change because I randomly came across an article about the Olympic Truce Mural.

So Much More Than Just Sports

The Mural is a representation of the Truce made among the participating nations of the Olympics that they’ll put squabbles aside for a week before, during, and after the Olympics. It’s essentially an agreement to just let the athletes compete and spectators attend safely in the spirit of peace. I love this idea of letting these athletes, who have trained their whole lives in a sport, showcase their skill and compete with others around the world. It seems like a much more civilized way to compete between nations than I don’t know…war?? I don’t think that anyone puts that on the athletes, but there is definitely national pride and bragging rights when they win.

Also, I like that the Mural is a partially broken down wall symbolizing the separation among people or peoples. (I know, it’s not exactly subtle but it’s certainly straight forward.) Isn’t that what the Olympics are about? The coming together of nations and meeting on the common grounds of achievements in human endeavor through sport? It’s certainly a far cry from the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin where Jewish athletes were either outright barred from participating or were conveniently sidelined because of some technicality.

Hopefully, those days are behind us. Once, I read about the Mural and the Truce, it finally sunk in that the Olympics are not just about seeing the pinnacle of athleticism. It’s really about nations finding peace though sport. And with that, I’ll be watching the Olympics with more enthusiasm than I ever had before!

This means that I’ll likely be subjecting my husband and son to watching figure skating just like I had to! 😂

Are you into the Olympics? Have you always been? Share in the comments!