Sunday 9 February 2014

Why the Winter Olympics are simply brrrrrrrr-illant

I am never happier than when an all-consuming sporting event is on our screens, and that means that at the moment I am one very content bunny.  It's the Winter Olympics! And I, for one, believe it has a great deal to offer even the most reluctant of sport watchers. Here are five reasons why:

1) The timing: The January/February period can in itself be a difficult time for many. Christmas has been and gone in all its wonderful, raisin-centric jollity, you haven't learnt to play that ukelele you were given for a present (as you had vowed to), Strictly Come Dancing is truly over and you're already starting to forget who was even on it, despite it mattering more than anything only six weeks ago. 

Alexei Yagudin- best figure skater everrrrrr
Every four years, however, we are royally spoilt by the full-on coverage of the Winter Olympics. The timing couldn't be better. We are given natural sporting Winter highs, avoiding any onset of the Winter blues. Unlike during the Summer Olympics, when we might really want to stay inside watching daily 12-hour coverage but are forced outside to 'be sociable' at some sort of barbecue, chicken- wing oriented event, during the Winter Olympics we can hibernate guilt-free. That's what we're supposed to do, and noone will know whether you watched 4 hours of someone doing something akin to sledging.

2) It features the best sport ever:  For a huge figure skating fan like myself (well, not that huge, I'm only 5'7"- ahahaha), the Winter Olympics gives us something very special. That is, an extra 2 weeks a year of figure skating every 4 years. For me, this is the best sport in the whole world, the perfect combination of speed, strength and beauty, yet its television coverage is so scarce. And before you say it, no, 'Dancing on Ice' does not count!  During the Winter Olympics, though,  people start reminiscing about the glory days of 'Torville and Dean' in 1984 and vaguely remember beautiful terms such as 'triple axle'. I live for these 2 weeks.

Too cool for school
3) The madness: The most absurd and dangerous seeming of sports are shown on our screens. Even if you have no idea what's going on, or cannot recognise a single person, you will find yourself swiftly absorbed, and besides. the Beeb will most likely put together some sort of handy 'guide' for you to nod at anyway. There are events with wonderful names such as 'Moguls', there are people sliding head first on a tea tray at 140mph down icy tubes, there are ultra-cool people in baggy clothes doing something that only intimidatingly hip 15 year old boys tend to do at the skate park in real-life.. only these people do it on snow. And did I mention there's all sorts of lovely figure skating too?

4) It all looks so pretty! And snowy. And magical. It makes me want a hot chocolate.

5) It's sometimes so bad, it's good: Sports presenters who, as far as I am aware, don't really know anything about any of these sports, are forced to make terrible conversation with crazy snow-enthusiasts. The awkwardness is too much, yet also wonderful, to watch. I am looking at you, Matthew Pinsent.